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Authors and Historians Honored at Joint Annual Meeting
On Friday, November 14, members of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Associ-ation
(NCLHA) and the Federation of North Carolina Historical Societies (FNCHS) held
their annual joint meeting at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. The ses-sion
featured presentations on the revised edition of The Way We Lived in North Carolina,
the smallpox epidemic in Revolutionary-era America, and the absence of magic realism in
American literature, as well as the customary bill of awards and certificates for the year’s
best North Carolina books, secondary-school literary magazines, and local historical orga-nizations.
The occasion was a milestone for the North Carolina Book Awards, marking
the inaugural presentation of the Ragan Old North State Award and the fiftieth anniver-sary
for both the poetry and juvenile literature honors.
Jo Ann Williford, secretary-treasurer of the FNCHS, welcomed attendees to Raleigh
and introduced speakers during the afternoon portion of the program. By tradition, the
first order of business was the presentation of the 2003 Student Publication Awards, pre-sided
over by John Batchelor of Greensboro. First place in the high school division of the
literary magazine competition went to Highlands School of Highlands for its publication,
Crossroads. Second place in the category was awarded to W. G. Enloe High School of
Raleigh for Stone Soup. Third place resulted in a tie between Charles D. Owen High
School of Black Mountain for Pegasus and Ravenscroft School of Raleigh for The Living
Hand. Lee County High School of Sanford received honorable mention for The Lee High
Review. Honored with first place in the middle school division was LeRoy Martin Middle
School of Raleigh for Illusions. Second place went to Rugby Middle School of Hender-sonville
for Kaleidoscope, and third place to Seventy-First Classical Middle School of
Fayetteville for The Classical Quill. Charlotte Country Day Middle School of Charlotte
received honorable mention for Pirates’ Treasure. Five student groups were on hand to
receive their trophies or certificates.
On behalf of the Historical Society of North Carolina, Alice Cotten of Chapel Hill pre-sented
two awards. The R. D. W. Connor Award honors the best article to appear in the
North Carolina Historical Review (NCHR) during the preceding year. The winner was
Carolina
Comments
VOLUME 52, NUMBER 1 JANUARY 2004
Published Quarterly by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History
2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
A Message from the Deputy Secretary
Despite the budget crisis that has afflicted all of state
government in recent years, the Office of Archives and
History has continued to plan for the future preserva-tion
of important historical resources. Through grants
and gifts, the office has acquired, expanded, or pro-tected
several properties directly related to its pro-grams
and mission.
The City of Fayetteville has given the Museum of
the Cape Fear three tracts of property adjacent to and
just west and north of Arsenal Park. The three tracts
will permit a better interpretation of the park. The park
contains the foundations of the western wall and shops of
the U.S. Arsenal. Originally constructed
between 1838 and 1860, the arsenal received additions from the Confederate govern-ment
between 1861 and 1865. Gen. William T. Sherman destroyed the structure
during the Carolinas campaign of 1865.
For more than twenty years, the Robert Lee Humber House in Greenville has
hosted the headquarters of the Eastern Office of Archives and History. The house
once belonged to Robert Lee Humber—lawyer, legislator, visionary, and founder of
the North Carolina Museum of Art. It is listed in the National Register of Historic
Places. In 1980 Humber’s sons John and Marcel donated the house to the City of
Greenville and Pitt County to serve as the Eastern Office of Archives and History.
Unfortunately, in recent years the house has fallen into disrepair. Working with the
Humber family, the Office of Archives and History agreed to accept the property if
the city and county each provided $50,000 for badly needed repairs. While that
money will not complete all of the repairs, it will stabilize the structure until further
funds are identified. In the meantime the Eastern Office now has a permanent home.
Two Civil War battlefields also associated with Sherman’s Carolinas campaign
have received further protection. A cooperative agreement between the Department
of Cultural Resources, the U.S. Commodity Credit Corporation, and the Civil War
Preservation Trust (CWPT) will preserve important parts of Averasboro Battlefield
from future development. Under the agreement the CWPT will receive approxi-mately
$175,000 from the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program to purchase
easements from local landowners within the boundaries of the battlefield. The
department will hold the easements.
Finally, Bentonville Battlefield (formerly called Bentonville Battleground), a state
historic site categorized as one of the nation’s most endangered battlefields, will
expand by 313 acres. The North Carolina Natural Heritage Trust granted $414,000
to the CWPT so that the latter could qualify for a larger federal grant. With those
funds the CWPT will purchase land from local property owners within the bound-aries
of the 6,000-acre battlefield. Eventually, the CWPT will transfer the land to the
state historic site for further interpretation and preservation.
On November 19, 2003, the North Carolina Historical Commission approved
these transactions. Future generations of North Carolinians will benefit from the
decisions we make today to preserve the state’s history.
Jeffrey J. Crow
Mark E. Bradley, a graduate student at the
University of North Carolina (UNC) at Cha-pel
Hill, for “‘This Monstrous Proposition’:
North Carolina and the Confederate Debate
on Arming the Slaves,” which appeared in
the April 2003 issue of the NCHR. The
Hugh T. Lefler Award for the best paper
written by an undergraduate student went to
Timothy J. Williams for “Literary Societies at
Wake Forest College,” completed while he
was enrolled at Wake Forest University. Like
Bradley, Williams is now a history graduate
student at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The American Association of University
Women (AAUW) Award for Juvenile Liter-ature,
given annually since 1953, went to
Michelle Groce of Cornelius for Jasper (Novello Festival Press, 2003). Esther Lumsdon of
the Raleigh branch of the AAUW made the presentation.
Jeffrey J. Crow, deputy secretary of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History,
presented an American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) Award of Merit to
the Warren County Historical Association for publication of The Architecture of Warren
County, North Carolina, 1770s to 1860s. Accepting the award were author Kenneth
McFarland and Richard Hunter, clerk of Warren County Superior Court. Another certifi-cate
of merit recipient, Kingston Heath of UNC-Charlotte, recognized for his book, The
Patina of Place, was not present. Receiv-ing
AASLH certificates of commendation
were the Centennial Committee of the
North Carolina Nurses Association and
Nursing Board for a documentary, the
Old West Durham Neighborhood Asso-ciation
for a website, the North Carolina
Museum of History for the exhibit Man-
Made Marvels, and the Carteret County
Historical Association for development
of The History Place. Audrey Booth
accepted on behalf of the nurses’ organiza-tion,
John Schelp and Pamela Spaulding
for the Durham group, and Martha Tracy
for the Museum of History.
In the first of two afternoon presenta-tions,
Elizabeth A. Fenn of Duke Uni-versity
addressed “Pox Americana: The
Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-
1782.” At the conclusion of a brief busi-ness
meeting of the NCLHA, Joe A.
Mobley, former administrator of the Historical Publications Section, moderated a panel
discussion on “The Way We Lived in North Carolina: A Twenty-Year Retrospective.”
Sharing the stage were Sydney Nathans of Duke University and Harry L. Watson of
UNC-Chapel Hill, contributors to the original series, and William S. Price Jr. of Meredith
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 3
Author Kenneth McFarland (center) and Richard
Hunter (right), accepting on behalf of the Warren
County Historical Asosciation, hold AASLH
Awards of Merit for the publication of The
Architecture of Warren County, North Carolina, 1770s
to 1860s. Jeffrey J. Crow (left) presented the awards.
Esther Lumsdon (left) presents the AAUW
Award for Juvenile Literature to Michelle
Groce (right) for her book, Jasper.
College who, as director of the Division of
Archives and History in 1983, guided the
project that resulted in the award-winning
five-volume series.
The evening portion of the meeting began
with a social hour and dinner, followed by
the inaugural Keats and Liz Sparrow Keynote
Address by novelist Randall Kenan of Chapel
Hill. In a talk filled with humor and recom-mendations
of books, Kenan bemoaned the
fact that American fiction writers, particularly
in the South, rarely move outside the realm of
social realism into the type of magic realism
skillfully practiced by Latin American writers.
Announcements of awards resumed after the
talk, beginning with the presentation by Jo Ann
Williford of the Albert Ray Newsome Awards,
bestowed annually by the FNCHS to the
historical organizations in North Carolina judged
to have conducted the most comprehensive and
outstanding programs in local or community
historical activities during the previous year.
The winners were the Warren County Histori-cal
Association for a comprehensive architec-tural
survey, the Gates County Historical Soci-ety
for a wide range of activities, and the
Sankofa Center in Wake Forest for sponsorship
of the North Carolina Rosenwald Schools
Community Project. Accepting for the
Warren group was Richard Hunter, for the
Gates organization, Erin Seiling, and for the
Sankofa Center, Nyoni Collins.
Sue Hatcher of the Historical Book Club of
Greensboro presented the Sir Walter Raleigh
Award for Fiction to Pamela Duncan of Gra-ham
for her novel, Plant Life (Delacorte Press,
2003). Sally Buckner of Raleigh presented the fif-tieth
Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry to
Michael Chitwood of Chapel Hill for Gospel
Road Going (Tryon Publishing Company, 2002).
Presiding over the evening’s festivities was
Jerry C. Cashion, president of the NCLHA,
who announced the winner of the first Ragan
Old North State Award for Nonfiction. The
prize is named for Sam Ragan (1915-1996),
poet, critic, first secretary of the Department of
4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Novelist Randall Kenan delivers the inaugural
Keats and Liz Sparrow Keynote Address at the
joint annual meeting of NCLHA and FNCHS.
(Above) Pamela Duncan (right), author of
Plant Life, holds the Sir Walter Raleigh
Award for Fiction. Sue Hatcher (left) of the
Historical Book Club of Greensboro made
the presentation. (Below) Sally Buckner
presents the fiftieth Roanoke-Chowan
Award for Poetry to Michael Chitwood,
author of Gospel Road Going.
Cultural Resources, and longtime booster of arts and letters in North Carolina. The new
award is the successor to the Patterson Cup, presented by the NCLHA between 1905 and
1922, and the Mayflower Cup, awarded from 1931 to 2002. The Society of Mayflower
Descendants withdrew sponsorship of the award for nonfiction (see Carolina Comments,
October 2002, or http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/affiliates/lit-hist/awards/awards.htm). Taking the
inaugural honor was Timothy Silver of Boone,
a professor at Appalachian State University
specializing in environmental history for his
book, Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains:
An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in
Eastern America (UNC Press, 2003).
The R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award,
bestowed annually by the NCLHA for signifi-cant
lifetime contributions to the literary heri-tage
of North Carolina, went to Wilma
Dykeman of Asheville, novelist, historian, and
pioneer environmentalist. Robert Anthony,
curator of the North Carolina Collection at
UNC-Chapel Hill, made the presentation. In
the final ceremony of the evening, Cashion, as
chairman of the North Carolina Historical
Commission, presented the Christopher
Crittenden Memorial Award jointly to
Catherine Bishir and Michael Southern, both
of the State Historic Preservation Office, the former recently retired. The two were hon-ored
for lengthy careers dedicated to the documentation and preservation of the architec-tural
heritage of the state, culminating in the publication by UNC Press of a three-volume
series of guidebooks. The award, presented annually since 1970, recognizes lifetime con-tributions
to the preservation of North Carolina history, and honors Crittenden, director
of the Department of Archives and History from 1935 to 1968. Bishir and Southern were
likewise honored in September by the Southeastern Society of Architectural Historians,
which presented the authors of the outstanding series of architectural guidebooks with a
special award at the annual meeting of the society in Savannah, Georgia.
N.C. Literary and Historical Association Life Members
The constitution of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association provides that a
complete listing of the organization’s life members be published annually in Carolina Com-ments.
The following listing reflects that membership as of September 1, 2003.
J. W. Abernathy Jr.
Bass Farms, Inc.
Jackson Bebber
Mrs. John Behnken
Irwin Belk
John M. Belk
Doris Betts
Mrs. Karl Bishopric
Elizabeth Buford
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph B.
Cheshire Jr.
Dr. James W. Clark
Walter Clark
James A. Clodfelter
Mr. and Mrs. Marion S.
Covington
Mr. and Mrs. William N.
Craig
Grover C. Criswell
Mrs. Burke Davis
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Dillard
Dixon III
Dr. John E. Dotterer
Thomas A. Gray
J. W. Grisham
Margaret Harper
Mrs. Joseph H. Hayworth
High Point University
George Watts Hill
Dr. and Mrs. Lara G. Hoggard
Mr. and Mrs. Robert S.
Hudgins
John L. Humber
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 5
Jerry C. Cashion (left) awards the inaugural
Ragan Old North State Award for Nonfiction
to Timothy Silver (right) for his book, Mount
Mitchell and the Black Mountains.
Jerome Janssen
Dr. Thomas E. Jeffrey
Dr. H. G. Jones
Dr. Doris King
Dr. Richard H. Kohn
Calvin Battle Koonce
Marvin B. Koonce Jr.
Mrs. Walter McEachern
Dr. Donald Mathews
Mrs. Fred W. Morrison
Miss Jesse R. Moye
Hugh H. Murray
Dr. Susan K. Nutter
Dr. William C. Powell
William S. Powell
Dr. Norris W. Preyer
Alfred L. Purrington III
Robert A. Ragan
W. Trent Ragland Jr.
John Dillard Reynolds
William Neal Reynolds II
David T. Richardson
Richard Richardson
John Charles Rush
Robert G. Scruggs
Tony Seamon
George Shinn
Dr. W. Keats Sparrow
Roy Thompson
Mrs. J. Fred Von Canon
Elizabeth C. Watson
Dr. Harry Watson
Bruce E. Whitaker
Dr. Pepper Worthington
Bentonville Battlefield to Acquire More Land
A state grant of $414,000 will enable the recently renamed Bentonville Battlefield State
Historic Site to more than double the acreage under its protective care. The grant was
awarded to the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) by the North Carolina Natural
Heritage Trust Fund, which was established by the General Assembly in 1987 to facilitate
the acquisition by designated agencies, including the Department of Cultural Resources,
of state parks, nature preserves, and historic sites. Earlier this year, the CWPT included
Bentonville among the ten most endangered Civil War battlefields, threatened by creeping
development from the Research Triangle. The award was announced at a September 12
news conference at the visitor center. Former congressman J. Alex McMillan, author and
mapmaker Mark A. Moore of the Research Branch, and site manager Donny Taylor were
the featured speakers.
The state grant will qualify the CWPT for a federal grant of $683,000 from the Ameri-can
Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service. An additional $269,000
must then be raised by the CWPT to complete the funding with which to purchase 313
acres in scattered parcels along Harper House Road, east of the visitor center. When the
sale is finalized, the land will then be turned over to the state.
The Battle of Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865, encompassed 6,000 acres in southern
Johnston County. The state began acquiring the battleground in 1957, and the site has
grown incrementally over the years to the current holding of 233 acres. The pending
acquisition contains remnants of earthworks constructed by both armies. The battlefield
was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996. At its November meeting, the
North Carolina Historical Commission approved a proposal to change the name of the site
from “Battleground” to “Battlefield,” more accurately reflecting the enormous historical
importance of the battle.
Revised Edition of The Way We Lived in North Carolina Published
The North Carolina Office of Archives and History and UNC Press have collaborated to
issue a revised and updated single-volume edition of The Way We Lived in North Carolina,
originally published in 1983 in five volumes. Edited by Joe A. Mobley, the new edition
includes a set of twenty-eight full-page maps produced by Mark A. Moore, Archives and
History research historian and web-master.
The first edition rode the crest of enthusiasm for social history, appearing in an era when
professors, graduate students, and public historians in increasing numbers were looking at the
past from the perspective of the common man and woman. The concept for the series was
novel but simple: weaving research and interpretation around dozens of historic sites, the
authors created a social history of North Carolina from pre-colonial times to the present.
6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Underwritten in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the
original publication of The Way We Lived in North Carolina was the culmination of a six-year
project. Larry Misenheimer, then assistant administrator of the Historic Sites Section,
and William S. Price Jr., director of Archives and History, served as principal consultants.
They persuaded Sydney Nathans, a history professor at Duke University but not at that
point in his career a specialist in the Tar Heel State, to serve as general editor. That “out-sider”
perspective proved invaluable, making the series especially useful to the reader with
no preconceptions about the state’s past.
The first edition met a ready audience. Historian Guion Griffis Johnson, who in the
1930s had pioneered the study of social history with her Ante-Bellum North Carolina, hailed
the series and credited the authors for their ability to encapsulate the central themes of
state history and identify the critical forces at work. The American Historical Association
in 1984 honored the series with the James Harvey Robinson Prize.
The new edition preserves the organizational arrangement of the original, with five dis-crete
parts prepared by historians Elizabeth A. Fenn and Peter H. Wood, Harry L. Watson,
Thomas H. Clayton, Sydney Nathans, and Thomas C. Parramore. Editor Mobley extended
the original story down to the present, incorporated into the main text sidebars prepared by
Jean B. Anderson for the original volumes, and selected hundreds of new photographs.
Mark A. Moore, responsible for creating the maps for the new edition, has also
designed a website accessible at www.waywelivednc.com, or by links on the Archives and
History site, www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us. The site is intended to complement the book and to
extend its audience. On the website are the full set of specially designed maps, approxi-mately
20 percent of the text, and over one hundred photographs from the book. Students
of state history, or anyone anticipating a visit to one of the state’s twenty-seven historic
sites, will find the website a useful portal through which to learn more about North
Carolina’s past and to plan their field trips.
Jeffrey J. Crow notes that the new edition appears in the agency’s centennial year.
Founded in 1903 as the North Carolina Historical Commission, Archives and History, in
the words of longtime director Christopher Crittenden, was an advocate of “history for all
the people.” The Way We Lived in North Carolina, in Crow’s estimation, “embodies what
Archives and History has done for a century so well.”
The book, available in hardcover ($34.95) and paperback ($24.95), can be ordered
directly from UNC Press, P.O. Box 2288, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2288, or can be
purchased at bookstores throughout the state. The companion website is now online.
Hurricane Isabel Batters Sites, Museums, and Historical Markers
On September 18, Hurricane Isabel struck North Carolina, making landfall over the
Outer Banks and northern coast. Some of the most severe destruction occurred in Dare
and Chowan Counties, each with a state historic site. Northeastern sites escaped serious
damage but had numerous downed trees, loss of power, and minor damage to buildings.
Somerset Place lost approximately thirty-five trees, while more than two hundred fell at
Roanoke Island Festival Park (RIFP).
Historic Edenton was perhaps the worst hit. The town was heavily damaged, with
numerous trees down. The chimney collapsed on the Ziegler House, home to the visitor
center, so division craftsmen covered part of the roof with a tarpaulin to prevent further
injury. The Iredell House had ceiling, plaster, and fence damage. The 1782 Barker House
sustained serious damage and remains closed indefinitely: the house was flooded waist-deep
and a three-by-five-foot hole was torn in the siding on the southeast corner of the
building. At the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, a falling tree damaged a new ramp
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 7
and stairway. The gutters and the edge
of the roof on the rear of the building
were also damaged. The entire site lost
power for about a week. The North
Carolina Forest Service, the National
Guard, and staff from other sites
helped cut and remove trees and
debris for days. The visitor center
reopened on September 29.
The Outer Banks History Center
(OBHC) in Manteo was significantly
impacted by the hurricane. All OBHC
staff assisted with preparations for the
storm on September 14-15. The State
Archives’ van was dispatched to Manteo and selected collections were transported to
Raleigh as a precautionary measure on September 15. The NASA exhibit was dismounted
and moved to a secure and climatically stable National Park Service facility on the island’s
northern end. The center closed to the public at noon on September 16 when Dare
County officials ordered mandatory evacuations from Roanoke Island. While the center
lost power for several days, the stack area remained secure, and no harm was done to any
of the archival and library holdings by adverse environmental conditions.
The hurricane did no structural dam-age
to buildings or the Elizabeth II at
RIFP, but power was out for five days,
and downed pines, cedars, and myrtles
blocked every path in the interpretive
area and rendered the boardwalks
impassable. Many more trees leaned
precariously throughout the site. The
grounds needed extensive cleanup
before the site was safe for visitors. The
staffs of RIFP, the OBHC, and other
historic sites along with community vol-unteers
pitched in with the grounds
work and tree clearance during the
week of September 22-26. The NASA
exhibit was reinstalled in the OBHC gallery on September 26 to be ready for the reopen-ing
of the park the following day. The OBHC reopened on September 29.
Scores of trees and power lines were down in the vicinity of Historic Halifax, closing
highways. Shingles were blown off historic buildings, and a window was damaged at the
Montfort House. Power was restored after five days. Staff and inmates undertook light
debris removal. At Somerset Place, miraculously, there was no damage to buildings,
although about twenty of the very large cypress trees, some more than 350 years old, were
down along roads and canals, and in the yard. The site and many homes in the isolated
area remained without power for more than a week. The National Guard distributed
water and ice. Historic Bath suffered tree damage, particularly at St. Thomas Church, and
minor water damage at two houses. Tryon Palace lost some trees, but historic buildings
were high enough above the Trent River to escape flooding. Damage in the southeast at
Aycock Birthplace, Bentonville Battlefield, Brunswick Town, CSS Neuse, and Fort Fisher
8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Workers remove a tree from the side of the Ziegler
House, the visitor center for Historic Edenton. Note
the collapsed chimney on the roof.
This fallen tree across the railing of the porch of a
shed was one of more than two hundred toppled by
Hurricane Isabel at Roanoke Island Festival Park.
was minor. In the Piedmont several
sites lost a few trees or power for a few
days but had no significant damage.
Two of the three state maritime
museums felt the fury of Isabel. The
museum boatshop on Roanoke Island
suffered such extensive structural dam-age
that the building, owned by the
Town of Manteo, was condemned.
Branch manager Scott Whitesides had
to move to an office in RIFP, where
he can be reached at (252) 475-1500,
ext. 241. The main building of the
maritime museum in Beaufort lost
only a few shingles. But across the
street, a number of piers supporting the decks behind the Watercraft Center were broken,
while the center received an unscheduled sand blasting and will require a new coat of
paint. The N.C. Maritime Museum at Southport emerged from the storm unscathed.
The State Highway Historical Marker Program also suffered the effects of the high
winds. The northeastern corner of the state, particularly Dare, Currituck, Chowan, and
Bertie Counties, received the brunt of the damage. In Edenton two markers, dedicated to
Francis Corbin and Thomas C. Manning, were snapped, the latter inadvertently by local
clean-up crews. Thirty marker posts were broken, the bulk of those on the Outer Banks.
The N.C. Department of Transportation, co-sponsor of the program along with the
Office of Archives and History, agreed to apply Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) funds to the repair and replacement costs. Total damages to signs and posts as a
result of Hurricane Isabel are estimated at $10,000-$12,000. Even at that, the damages did
not match the toll of Hurricanes Bertha and Fran in 1996. Those storms snapped markers
primarily across the central coast and in the Cape Fear region, resulting in more than forty
broken markers.
Department of Transportation History Jointly Published
How did North Carolina triumph over Tennessee for a major portion of the Blue Ridge
Parkway during the Great Depression? Why did the state aggressively pave rural highways
following World War II but underestimate the growing importance of interstates? What
influences led the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to escalate
highway construction while beginning to develop alternative public transportation in the
closing years of the twentieth century?
These questions and others are answered in a new book,
Paving Tobacco Road: A Century of Progress by the North Carolina
Department of Transportation, written by Walter R. Turner,
historian at the North Carolina Transportation Museum
(NCTM). This book traces the development of the agency
from its beginnings in 1915 as the North Carolina State High-way
Commission through the first years of the twenty-first
century. Its publication was a cooperative effort between the
Historical Publications Section of the Division of Historical
Resources, the Administrative Section and the NCTM (both
within the Division of State Historic Sites), and the NCTM
Foundation. Funding was provided by the foundation.
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 9
This fence along the carriage road at Somerset Place
was severely damaged by fallen trees and high winds
during the hurricane.
Paving Tobacco Road tells the story of
how North Carolina developed the reputa-tion
in the 1920s as “The Good Roads
State.” One chapter is devoted to alternative
modes of public transportation, including
the state’s ferry, bicycle, and rail programs.
Turner identifies many of the leaders, both
political and professional, who helped cre-ate
North Carolina’s extensive transporta-tion
network. D. G. Martin, moderator of
UNC-TV’s Bookwatch, calls the book “a
must read for anyone who wants to under-stand
why North Carolina’s image changed
from the ‘Rip Van Winkle’ state to ‘leader
of the New South.’”
This title is annotated and indexed and
includes appendixes that list highway fund
revenues through 2002. A selected bibliography provides sources for further reading on
transportation history. The text is illustrated by more than ninety black-and-white pic-tures,
including many early-twentieth-century photographs never before published, and a
dozen attractive maps, drawn by Mark A. Moore of the Division of Historical Resources,
Brian Padfield of NCDOT, and others.
Paving Tobacco Road (181 pages, paperback, illustrated, indexed) sells for $26.75 plus
$5.00 shipping. Order from the Historical Publications Section (CC), Office of Archives
and History, 4622 Mail Service Center, 120 West Lane Street, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622.
For credit card (VISA and MasterCard) orders, visit the Historical Publications Shop at
http://store.yahoo.com/nc-historical-publications/ or call (919) 733-7442.
Duke Homestead Preserves Tobacco Heritage
In a time when the tobacco auction system has all but disappeared and mechanization has
replaced traditional harvesting methods, visitors to Duke Homestead can still hear the
chant of the auctioneer, see a mule trudge through the field as men harvest leaves by hand,
and smell wood burning as the curing barn is filled with green tobacco. Duke Home-stead’s
2003 Tobacco Harvest Festival and
Mock Tobacco Auction on September 20
evoked such traditional tobacco farm life.
Visitors not only viewed the harvest, but
some participated in a tobacco looping
contest. Others enjoyed the foods cooked
over an open fire and woodstove, tours of
the historic area, and bluegrass entertain-ment.
Children played nineteenth-century
games and took turns doing laundry at the
washboard. Professor Robert Durden of
Duke University was on hand to autograph
his new book, Bold Entrepreneur: A Life of
James B. Duke.
The rapid disappearance of the tobacco
auction system led the Duke Homestead
1 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Lyndo Tippett (left), secretary of the North
Carolina Department of Transportation, looks on
as Governor Michael F. Easley (left center) accepts
a copy of Paving Tobacco Road from author Walter
Turner (right center) and Jeffrey J. Crow (right),
deputy secretary of the Office of Archives and
History.
Thomas Ellis and Wilson Crabtree, volunteers at
Duke Homestead, demonstrate the nearly
forgotten art of tobacco looping at the Tobacco
Harvest Festival.
Education and History Corporation (DHEHC) to organize a Tobacco Auctioneers and
Ticket Markers Reunion in 2002. With a grant from the N.C. Humanities Council, the
corporation hired two oral historians to interview six auctioneers: Jimmy Joliff, at eighty,
the oldest known auctioneer; Stuart Cutts, an auctioneer whose father and son both
worked as auctioneers; Bob Cage, a world champion auctioneer; Sherwood Stewart, who
sold tobacco for forty-two years; Edward Stephenson, whose father and uncles were all in
the tobacco business; and Jane Squires, the first female auctioneer.
The interviews, now available at the site library, offer rare glimpses into a vanishing
profession. Most auctioneers became interested in the craft because of family connections
to tobacco. Stephenson heard his father practice his chant daily in the morning shower.
Cutts’s father also was an auctioneer who chanted at home and encouraged his son to try
it. Squires’s father was an auctioneer as well. The auctioneers learned the trade primarily
by observation. Stewart attended an auctioneering school; at fourteen he was the youngest
student. Squires took a licensing exam in South Carolina and apprenticed with an auction-eer
for a season. Auctioneering was more than a fast and musical chant. With hundreds
of thousands of pounds of tobacco to sell in a few hours, auctioneers kept the flow of the
sale moving. They had to catch all bids accurately, a challenge when there were a dozen
buyers with different styles of bidding. Even more complicated was keeping track of
“take-outs,” traditions for allowing successive purchases by the same buyers. Also vital was
maintaining good relationships with both buyers and farmers. The auctioneers fondly
remembered the old auction days. “A big circus atmosphere,” Stephenson recalled.
“You . . . had your whole family. . . . waiting to get your check to go to town to buy
your kids new clothes. . . . The peanutman was there and the lemonademan. And music!”
Durham had three sets of buyers attending sales at three different places simultaneously.
Opening day was so important that state officials and the media attended. Today the atmo-sphere
of the few surviving auctions is subdued. Long-standing family traditions of work-ing
in tobacco are disappearing.
Since 1972 the DHEHC has collected artifacts related to the state’s tobacco heritage.
The corporation has perhaps the country’s finest collection of tobacco manufacturing
equipment and one of the best assemblages of farming implements. Recent donors include
David May of Durham, who gave a large painting of a tobacco farm. More than fifty years
ago, artist Phil Brinkman depicted men working at a curing barn and grading bench with a
mule pulling a tobacco sled in the background. The painting will be displayed in the
museum’s auditorium. Bill Pope of Kernersville has donated a collection of more than fifty
different items of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company memorabilia accumulated by his late
sister, Etta Mae Pope, a longtime Reynolds employee. The collection ranges from a Joe
Camel coffee mug to a box of Apple Sun Cured plug tobacco. Tobacco Associates, Inc.,
of Washington, D.C., with a Raleigh office managed by Charlie King, offered another
unique donation—a large painting by Allen Montague of the five major stages of modern
tobacco processing: seedling production in the greenhouse, transplanting in the field,
mechanical harvesting, selling at the warehouse, and container shipping.
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 1 1
This large mural by Phil
Brinkman was recently
donated to Duke
Homestead by David
May and will be
displayed in the site’s
auditorium.
News from Historical Resources
Archives and Records Section
Staff of the Archives and Records Section assisted several local officials prior to the arrival of
Hurricane Isabel on September 18. Town clerks from Manteo, Atlantic Beach, and Pinetops
received disaster preparedness information in advance of the storm. On September 22, fol-lowing
Isabel’s departure from North Carolina, four members of the section lent their exper-tise
to officials in Swan Quarter, county seat of Hyde County, where the courthouse had
been flooded by three feet of water. In the register of deeds’ office, approximately twenty
three-ring binders, containing original marriage licenses, were disassembled and the individ-ual
documents laid flat to dry. Staff advised the register, the clerk of superior court, and the
tax administrator on methods for freeze-drying loose papers and bound volumes. The direc-tor
of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), John Kennedy, joined in discussions
with the clerk of superior court on the expedient and proper processes for saving late-nine-teenth-
century books. Michael J. Unruh, records officer for the AOC, also visited the court-house
and brought back to Raleigh forty-three boxes of original wills, special proceedings
case files, and civil and criminal case files that did not get wet. Those records were scheduled
for ultimate transfer to the Archives and will be re-boxed and inspected by the archival staff.
The North Carolina State Archives has posted several additional collections in its
Manuscript and Archives and Reference System (MARS) online catalog. The colonial
governors’ papers have been described to the item level, and digitized copies of the docu-ments
have been linked to each description. Also, approximately 150 early North Carolina
maps have been digitized and are likewise linked to their descriptions in MARS. These
items may be searched and viewed at http://www.ncarchives.dcr.state.nc.us.
The Friends of the Archives (FOA) sponsored two internships this fall. Christine
Granquist, a first-year student in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) pro-gram
at UNC-Chapel Hill, indexed and scanned more than 1,200 snapshots from the Blue
Ridge Parkway Photograph Collection. In addition, Granquist created a complete finding
aid to the collection, which will link to the digitized photographs. She also scanned approxi-mately
two hundred documents from the colonial governors’ papers for presentation on the
Web. Anna Kempl, another student in the SILS program, began work on September 30 as
the T. Harry Gatton intern. She scanned representative samples from the H. S. Brimley
Photograph Collection and converted the Brimley finding aid to EAD.XML. Kempl also
encoded the Gertrude Weil Collection finding aid to EAD.XML. Both finding aids and
images should be available soon in the Archives online catalog.
On October 11, Jesse R. “Dick” Lankford presented a workshop at the North Carolina
Museum of History on “Preserving Your Family Photos.” A brief slide show and exam-ples
of historic types of photographs were shown to nearly fifty attendees. Lankford exam-ined
private photos and offered suggestions for their preservation and storage.
1 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Just three weeks after dealing with Hurricane Isabel, the Outer Banks History Center
(OBHC) hosted the fall meeting of the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) on
October 9-10. Assistant curator Sarah Downing served on the program committee and con-ducted
a workshop with Janis Holder, university archivist at UNC-Chapel Hill, titled “From
Memories to History: An Introduction to Oral History.” Curator KaeLi Spiers handled local
arrangements and moderated a panel discussion attended by representatives from the First
Flight Centennial Commission, the National Park Service (NPS), the First Flight Society,
the Wright Flight program, and Icarus International. Speakers included distinguished authors
David Stick, Kevin Duffus, and Dr. Patricia Click. Roanoke Island Festival Park and the
N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island waived fees for the use of their facilities by SNCA
attendees. Doug Stover provided an exclusive tour of the NPS museum storage facility.
Many participants also availed themselves of a behind-the-scenes tour of the OBHC. The
center’s support group, the OBHC Associates, helped underwrite an evening reception for
SNCA at the aquarium.
Recent Accessions by the North Carolina State Archives
During the months of September, October, and November 2003, the Archives and
Records Section made 219 accession entries. The Archives received security microfilm of
records for Alamance, Buncombe, Cabarrus, Catawba, Chatham, Cumberland, Durham,
Gates, Greene, Guilford, Henderson, Johnston, Jones, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg,
Montgomery, Moore, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Orange, Pamlico,
Pasquotank, Pender, Person, Pitt, Polk, Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Rutherford,
Sampson, Scotland, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Transylvania, Union, Wake, Watauga, Wayne,
Wilkes, Wilson, Yadkin, and Yancey Counties; and for the municipalities of Asheville,
Brevard, Clayton, Clemmons, Cleveland, Fletcher, High Point, Hillsborough, Kill Devil
Hills, Manteo, Mint Hill, Monroe, Morehead City, Nags Head, Oxford, Saint James,
Shallotte, Wake Forest, and Zebulon.
The section accessioned records from the following state agencies: Department of
Administration, 2 reels; Department of Insurance, 39 reels; Department of Transportation,
23 reels; Governor’s Office, 30.8 cubic feet; State Board of Education, 1 cubic foot; and
State Treasurer, 85 reels.
The William B. Grady Letters, the Joseph H. Hubbard Letter, the James A. May Letter,
the Houston Family Letters, the Hugh A. Crawford Letter, the Sarah J. C. Whittlesey Let-ters,
the Coltrane Family Papers, the Lott Family Papers, and the John M. Turner Letter
were accessioned as new private collections. Additions were made to the Samuel A. Ashe
Papers, the William Joslin Papers, the Slave Collection, and the Miscellaneous Papers. The
W. C. Perry Account Book and the ERA Transient Accounts were added to the collec-tion
of account books. Other records accessioned included 4 Bible Records; 2 volumes of
Cemetery Records; 5 volumes of Church Records; 67 audio- and 16 videotaped inter-views,
and 1,316 other items, added to the Military Collection; 1 issue added to the
Newspaper Collection; and 3 original prints and 5.5 cubic feet of
aerial photographs added to the Non-textual Materials Collection.
Historical Publications Section
A new booklet from the Office of Archives and History illustrates and
describes some of the largest and most significant commemorative
celebrations at the site of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. “By Dauntless Reso-lution
and Unconquerable Faith”: Selected Anniversary Celebrations at the Site
of the Wright Brothers’ First Flight, 1928-1978, by Stephen E. Massengill,
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 1 3
is illustrated with fourteen photographs taken at several of the celebrations held in North
Carolina during those years. The title derives from the inscription at the base of the Wright
Brothers National Memorial at Kill Devil Hills. The booklet is a reprint (1,000 copies) of an
article by the same title that appears in the October 2003 issue of the North Carolina Historical
Review (NCHR). The book (29 pages, paperback, illustrated, indexed) sells for $5.35 plus
$5.00 shipping. The October issue, which contains two additional articles, numerous book
reviews, and an index to Volume 80 of the NCHR (2003), sells for $8.00.
Plans are afoot to bring back into print all of the volumes in the North Carolina Troops,
1861-1865: A Roster series. Broadfoot Publishing Company, which assisted in printing
some of the earlier volumes, will be working with the section to complete this project.
The schedule calls for two volumes to be printed every other month beginning in Febru-ary,
so that all volumes will be available by February 2005. If you are interested in being
included on a publication notification list, please contact the section administrator by
e-mail at donna.kelly@ncmail.net, or by phone at (919) 733-7442.
The section’s new online store has been a roaring success. In the three months since its
inception in early September, nearly $3,000 in revenue has been received through the
website. Most of the section’s books, maps, and posters may now be purchased there, and
in the coming months every item in the inventory will be available. Also contributing to a
high level of receipts during this period, sales over the ten days of the North Carolina
State Fair totaled $16,897. Virtually every section staff member, in addition to Jo Ann
Williford of Archives and History administration and Jesse R. Lankford of the Archives
and Records Section, helped sell books at the fair.
Two reprints are now available from the section. Triumph at Kitty Hawk: The Wright
Brothers and Powered Flight, by Thomas C. Parramore, was reprinted (3,000 copies) in con-junction
with the centennial year of the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk. The book
(123 pages, paperback, illustrated, indexed) features a new cover. Greene and Cornwallis:
The Campaign in the Carolinas, out of print since 1987, is back in print (1,500 copies). It
describes the retreat of Nathanael Greene’s Southern Army before Lord Cornwallis’s Brit-ish
regulars, culminating in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The book (91 pages, paper-back,
illustrated, indexed) features a new index and a newly designed cover. Each book
sells for $10.70 plus $5.00 shipping.
All of these items may be ordered from the Historical Publications Section, Office of
Archives and History, 4622 Mail Service Center (CC), Raleigh, NC, 27699-4622. For
credit card (VISA and MasterCard) orders, visit the online store at http://store.yahoo.com/
nc-historical-publications/ or call (919) 733-7442. For walk-in purchases that may include
selected discounts, visit the office at 120 West Lane Street, Raleigh, weekdays from 8:30 A.M.
to 5:00 P.M.
State Historic Preservation Office
The Robert E. Stipe Professional Award was presented to F. Mitchener “Mitch” Wilds at
the annual Preservation North Carolina conference awards dinner in Greensboro on Sep-tember
12. The award is the highest tribute in the state to working professionals who
demonstrate outstanding commitment to historic preservation as part of their job responsi-bilities.
The annual prize honors Robert E. Stipe of Chapel Hill, director of the Division
of Archives and History in 1974-1975, educator in the field of historic preservation, and
mentor to a generation of preservation professionals in North Carolina.
The prestigious award recognizes the twenty-year impact of Mitch Wilds on the state’s
historic built environment. He has worked directly with the rehabilitation and restoration
of numerous significant state-owned properties, including the State Capitol, the Executive
1 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Mansion, the Chowan County Courthouse, and Old East and Old West at UNC-Chapel
Hill. He has provided technical assistance to an even longer list of historic properties
owned by local governments and non-profit organizations across the state, such as the
Thomas Day House in Milton, the Mordecai
House and the Joel Lane House in Raleigh,
City Hall in Statesville, and the Caswell County
Courthouse. Wilds has advised the owners or
developers of a number of income-producing
historic tax credit projects undergoing certified
rehabilitation, including the American Tobacco
Company Complex in Durham, the Atlantic
Bank and Trust Building in Burlington, and
Reidsville High School. He has also given tech-nical
assistance to hundreds of individuals in
North Carolina trying to preserve their historic
homes, especially since the introduction in 1998
of the tax credit program for non-income-producing
historic structures.
Wilds has been involved in various preserva-tion
education programs during his career with the State Historic Preservation Office. He
was instrumental in planning the curriculum for the graduate course, “Field Methods in
Preservation Technology,” offered each summer at Old Salem by UNC-Greensboro. As
part of the instruction, he shares his knowledge and experience with the students through
a series of superb slide lectures. Wilds also serves as vice-chairman of the Louisburg
Historic Preservation Commission.
News from State Historic Sites
Capitol Section
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens hosted a number of special activities this fall,
including MumFest in October, which featured free tours of the gardens ablaze with
thousands of chrysanthemums, and a citywide celebration with crafts, rides, games, and
entertainment in New Bern’s historic downtown. Other programs included several free
films, an armchair tour of Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, a guided African American His-toric
Downtown Walking Tour of New Bern, a lecture by Dr. Freddie Parker of North
Carolina Central University on runaway slaves in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century
New Bern, and the palace’s annual Jonkonnu event, a slave holiday tradition.
The Wake County Council of Veterans Organizations, Inc., hosted the twenty-second
annual Veterans Day Parade and Ceremony on November 11. More than thirty groups,
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 1 5
Mitch Wilds (right) accepts the Robert E.
Stipe Professional Award from Sue Cone
(left), chairperson of the board of directors of
Preservation North Carolina, and Congress-man
Brad Miller (center).
including the Helping Hands Mission, youth scout organizations, and veterans of World
War II, participated in the parade through downtown Raleigh. The termination of the
march at the Veterans Memorial on Capitol Square coincided with a flyover by the U.S.
Air Force. Retired brigadier general Gary Pendleton, the keynote speaker, briefly
addressed the crowd. After the ceremony, the W. G. Enloe High School Band provided a
concert of patriotic airs and jazz numbers. The State Capitol, repairs to its water-damaged
dome completed and the scaffolding removed, was open for public tours in the afternoon.
The Capital Area Visitor Center (CAVC) in Raleigh is now showing a new twelve-minute
orientation film produced by division videographer Cheyney Hales. The new
product is on DVD format and replaces an aged slide show and equipment. Hales wrote
the script, which Nancy Mansfield of Tryon Palace reviewed, and did most of the video
work, with assistance from Jim Willard. Visuals borrowed from previous productions
saved a great amount of money. Other expenses were met with a grant that Pat Brock of
the CAVC secured from Sprint. The film, “Raleigh, Tar Heel Capital,” opens with a brief
but enticing mention of the twenty-seven state historic sites around North Carolina and
moves quickly to Native American encounters with European settlers. Sketching the set-tlement
and development of the colony, the production then focuses on the founding of
Raleigh; the 1831 fire that destroyed the statehouse; the building and contents of the cur-rent
historic State Capitol; and other historical attractions of the city. The Executive Man-sion
and major state museums receive attention in the film as well, with views of the
seldom-seen private quarters in the mansion.
The CAVC also now has a toll-free line catering to the many school and other groups
assisted by visitor center staff. Appropriately, the number is 1-866-SCH-TOUR
(724-8687).
The inaugural State Capitol Society Ball was held on December 6, under the $40,000
marquee sponsorship of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and support from
other friends. Proceeds from the fund-raising event will benefit educational and preserva-tion
programs at the 1840 State Capitol, a National Historic Landmark and state historic
site. Christmas decorations by the Raleigh Garden Club, a dinner buffet with regional cui-sine
from the coast to the mountains, and a silent auction were featured at the ball. Leon
Jordan’s Continentals provided swing music in tents on Capitol Square.
North Carolina Transportation Museum
The museum is pleased to announce receipt of $85,000 of federal TEA-21 (Transportation
Equity Act for the 21st Century) enhancement funds for the repair and restoration of
steam locomotive No. 604. The N.C. Department of Transportation provided the money.
The museum now has a total of $110,000 for the project.
The always popular Thomas the Tank Engine reappeared at the museum in October
for the annual fall program, A Day Out with Thomas. The event included train rides behind
Thomas as well as music, storytelling, videos, temporary tattoos, Sir Topham Hatt, and other
activities. Thomas the Tank Engine originated in Britain in 1945 when the Reverend
Wilbert Audry introduced the character in the first of a series of children’s books.
The Santa Train returned to the museum for three special weekends in December.
During his visit, Santa rode the train with families and handed out oranges and candy, an
old Southern Railway tradition. On the train, children made special holiday ornaments to
take home, listened to a reading of the family classic The Polar Express, and had pictures
taken with Santa.
1 6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Northeastern Historic Sites Section
WNET 13 of New York, an award-winning Public Broadcasting System television sta-tion,
recently taped several segments in Edenton for a documentary on slavery that is cur-rently
in production. The four-part series presents slavery from the perspective of the
enslaved population based on slave narratives and recent research. A number of Edenton
residents took part in the filming. Henry Pillow, retired minister and part-time interpreter
at Historic Edenton, effortlessly adopted the role of an Episcopal priest. The circa 1825
Chowan County jail, where slaves were imprisoned in 1831 following the Nat Turner
Rebellion, was one of the historic buildings pictured in the film. Students from the Col-lege
of the Albemarle acted as slaves and jailers. Harriet Jacobs’s struggle for freedom is
depicted in the series. Born a slave in 1813 in Edenton, she escaped at the age of twenty-nine
and later published her story, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. A middle-school stu-dent
portrayed Jacobs during her early years in Edenton. St. Paul’s Church, where free
blacks and slaves, including Jacobs’s family, attended services, was also featured in the
documentary.
Piedmont Historic Sites Section
Descendants of Quaker John Allen III (1749-1826) recently reunited in Snow Camp to
dedicate a private highway historical marker at the original site of the circa 1780 John
Allen House, along what is now the Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road near Cane Creek. The
Allen House, one of the finest surviving eighteenth-century frontier log dwellings in
North Carolina, is an integral part of the interpretation at Alamance Battleground, to
which it was relocated in 1965. Restored and opened to the public in 1967, the structure
is used to explain domestic life around the time of the Regulator movement and the
American Revolution. The home consists of one principal room, an enclosed loft, a cellar,
and two sheds. When the family donated the house to the state, they also included period
family furnishings that remain inside the structure. John Allen and his wife, Rachel, raised
twelve children in the log dwelling. With his Quaker background, Allen would have no
involvement in either the Regulator movement or the Battle of Alamance. It is important,
however, to note the family’s connection with Herman Husband, prominent Regulator
leader, who married Allen’s sister, Amy.
A total of 1,263 students from eleven North Carolina counties participated in Alamance
Battleground’s twenty-third annual Colonial Living Week in October. The event gave the
young people a true feel and taste of the eighteenth century. Interpreters demonstrated vari-ous
aspects of colonial life, such as the preparation of food over an open fire, different types
of available lighting (candles, Betty lamps, and rush lights), living in a log home, and the pro-cess
of making apple cider. The operating cider press provided hands-on opportunities,
which included sampling the final product, freshly squeezed apple juice. A colonial surveyor
and blacksmith discussed and performed their skilled trades. Soldiers talked about life in the
colonial militia and demonstrated a musket and a three-pounder cannon. Interpreters intro-duced
students to all kinds of toys of early origin, such as the cup and ball and the whirligig.
African American educator Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown’s famous etiquette book, The
Correct Thing To Do, To Say, To Wear, first published in 1941, is available again in paper-back
from the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum. Decades ago, Brown’s Palmer Memo-rial
Institute students used The Correct Thing as their behavior and manners handbook.
With a foreword by Brown’s nieces, the 142-page paperback edition sells for $16.95 plus
tax at the museum. Brown believed that correct behavior was not an issue of skin color,
but of right and wrong. At a time when codes of conduct were stricter than they are
today, she sought to produce graduates whose education and manners would enable them
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 1 7
to surmount existing racial barriers. The Marion Stedman Covington Foundation of
Greensboro funded the reprinting.
An evocative free exhibit of photos of Palmer Memorial Institute students in the late
1940s by groundbreaking African American photographer Griffith Davis was on display at
Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies in Durham through January 10. Born
on the Morehouse College campus in Atlanta, Griffith Davis (1923-1993) discovered pho-tography
in high school. After service in World War II, he earned a degree at Morehouse
in 1947. Davis then became Ebony magazine’s first roving editor. His initial major assign-ment
was a photo essay on Palmer Memorial Institute. The photos Davis snapped
appeared in an October 1947 Ebony feature on Palmer and its founder, which helped
make both famous. Many photos taken for this story were part of the Duke exhibit. The
photos ranged from boys and girls bidding each other good night in front of the girls’
dorm to a table of students singing grace before sitting down to lunch.
After taking the Palmer photos, Davis attended Columbia University’s graduate journal-ism
school—the only African American in his class—and graduated in 1949. He became a
photojournalist, with assignments in Africa, Europe, and the U.S. His photos and writings
appeared in the New York Times, Der Speigel, Ebony, Fortune, Modern Photography, Negro
Digest, and Time. From 1952 until his retirement in 1985, Davis was in the U.S. Foreign
Service, often stationed in Africa. Today Duke University has Davis’s papers and
photographs in its library.
On December 14 the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum celebrated a Christmas open
house in Stouffer Hall on campus. Students from nearby Sedalia Elementary School deco-rated
the museum’s outside Christmas tree and areas inside the hall. Dr. Brown’s campus
home, Canary Cottage, was decorated as it would have been in the 1940s. The afternoon
music program included choirs from four local churches and a professional flutist, Kelly
Wainscott of Gibsonville.
Town Creek Indian Mound hosted two disparate groups of guests in October. The
North Carolina Archaeological Society met there on October 4. The program included an
outdoor presentation of ground-penetrating radar applications in archaeology by Dr. Kent
Schneider of the U.S. Forest Service. On October 8, nearly eleven hundred cyclists repre-senting
forty-three states and three countries arrived at the site, a designated rest stop on a
weeklong bike ride from Boone to Oak Island.
Roanoke Island Festival Park
Roanoke Island Festival Park (RIFP), despite damage from Hurricane Isabel, offered its
full array of scheduled special performances for the fall. Painter Paul Belote of Virginia,
using a variety of medias and impressions, held his art show, Mystery and Grace, at the park
during September and October. Belote is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth Univer-sity
and a former advertising art director. His work has been exhibited at the Chrysler
Museum of Art and the Peninsula Fine Arts Center.
The Carolista Music Festival was held on October 12 with local and nationally known
women performers celebrating the achievements of women of the Outer Banks, particu-larly
Carolista Baum. In the summer of 1973 Baum and her husband awoke to the unusual
sound of heavy equipment coming from the direction of the big sand dune now known as
Jockey’s Ridge State Park. They went out to investigate. According to local tradition,
Carolista marched up to the bulldozer, planted herself in its path, and refused to move
until the machine was shut down. Later she convinced the N.C. Parks and Recreation
Council to endorse Jockey’s Ridge for a state park. Artists at the festival included blues
musician Rosie Ledet, Julie Clark, who appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, and jazz
performer Laura Martier from the Outer Banks.
1 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Mojo Collins, another well-known Outer Banks artist, appeared at RIFP on October 2
to benefit Icarus International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the celebration of
the history, beauty, and mystery of flight through art. His compact disk, Flights of Magic,
features songs about the first flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Collins has been per-forming
for over five decades. In November, Elizabethan Tymes: A Country Faire
returned to the park. Participants stepped back four hundred years to the Renaissance for a
variety of entertainments. Children dressed in Elizabethan garb, made family coats of arms,
and learned period dances. Other activities included fencing demonstrations, historic
weapons firing, Renaissance music, a pike drill, and a ship battle.
The twentieth anniversary of the Elizabeth II was cele-brated
on November 22 at its birthplace, with a daylong
birthday party that offered cake, balloons, and free
admission. The vessel, an authentic reconstruction of one
of the seven ships of Sir Walter Raleigh’s 1585 expedition
to the New World, was constructed on the Manteo water-front
to commemorate America’s 400th anniversary. It was
christened by First Lady Carolyn Hunt and launched on
November 22, 1983. Barbara Hird, reprising her familiar
role as Queen Elizabeth I, welcomed visitors to the birth-day
festivities. Lisbeth C. Evans, secretary of the Depart-ment
of Cultural Resources, was guest speaker for the
occasion. The captain of the Elizabeth II, Horace Whitfield,
presented a history of the vessel, and the Reverend Charles
E. B. Gill, rector of Saint Andrews By the Sea Episcopal
Church, blessed the ship. Visitors were entertained with
period dance lessons, music by Bob Zentz, a historic flag
display, an exhibit explaining the construction of the ves-sel,
and interpreters demonstrating maritime activities.
Southeastern Historic Sites Section
The CSS Neuse in Kinston hosted its annual Civil War living history program in Novem-ber,
with approximately eighty-five reenactors taking part. An estimated 435 visitors wit-nessed
a number of different activities including rope making, blacksmithing, a period
medical display, artillery demonstrations, and infantry drills. Confederate navy and Marine
Corps reenactors were also on hand, explaining the role of the two service branches in the
Civil War. They taught visitors about shipboard life, uniforms and weapons, navigation,
and various other aspects of the naval service. There was also a sutler, an exhibit about the
common North Carolina soldier, and five working reproduction artillery pieces on dis-play.
The following reenactment/living history groups participated in the event: North
Carolina Naval Squadron; Tidewater Maritime
Living History Association; Company E, C.S.
Marine Corps; C.S. Marines (Wilmington);
Reilly’s Battery; Edenton Bell Battery; Ellis’s Bat-tery;
Company F, 7th North Carolina; 51st North
Carolina; Old South Blacksmiths; and the Smith-field
Seamstress.
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The Guild of St. Andrews of
North Carolina, frequent
participants in special events at
Roanoke Island Festival Park,
provided educational
entertainment at the Elizabethan
Tymes Fair in November.
The crew of the North Carolina Naval Squadron, a
reenactment group based in Roper, participated in the
annual Civil War living history program at the CSS Neuse.
USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial
Author James Bradley signed copies of his explosive new book, Flyboys, in the battleship
visitor center on November 14. The event, part of a thirty-city national tour, was spon-sored
locally by Bristol Books, Time Warner Cable, and the USS North Carolina Battleship
Memorial. Bradley’s remarks were punctuated with excerpts from a recent Cable News
Network documentary about the events chronicled in the book. Flyboys reveals the long-buried
story of nine U.S. pilots who were shot down while bombing Japanese communi-cations
towers on Chichi Jima, an island near Iwo Jima. One of the nine, twenty-year-old
George H. W. Bush, was rescued from the waters of the Pacific by the crew of the subma-rine
Finback. The other eight airmen were held in captivity on Chichi Jima and ultimately
beheaded and cannibalized. Both the American and Japanese governments suppressed the
shocking story and the post-war trial of fifteen Japanese held accountable for the atrocity.
Bradley is the author of the best-selling Flags of Our Fathers, the study of the six marines
immortalized in Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the flag raising on
Iwo Jima. Bradley’s father was among the six.
Western Historic Sites Section
At Vance Birthplace, award-winning southern author Sharyn McCrumb recently read from
the newest novel in her popular Appalachian Ballad series, Ghost Riders, a story of the Civil
War in western North Carolina. In Ghost Riders, as in McCrumb’s other Ballad novels, the
narrative interweaves present-day characters and historical narrators, often with a strong
thread of the supernatural and magic realism. Ghost Riders contrasts lingering Civil War leg-ends
of Appalachia with the lives of current residents. McCrumb celebrates her ancestors and
the mountain land, crafting a story rich with the tradition and spirit of the region. The
novel’s primary narrators are the historic figures Malinda Blalock and Zebulon Vance. Blalock,
a young woman whose husband was forced into the Confederate army, disguised herself as a
boy and went with him. In the novel’s past, the couple eventually become outlaws who
avenge the deaths of their kinfolk at the hands of rebels. In the novel’s present, the war is a
half-remembered nightmare that lingers in the Confederate flag flying in the yard of a trailer,
church names such as Union Baptist, and reenactors who relive the war. Ghost Riders tells of
a war that turned neighbors into enemies and left survivors bitter for decades. McCrumb’s
novels celebrating the history and folklore of Appalachia have received scholarly acclaim and
ranking on the New York Times best-seller lists. “My books are like Appalachian quilts,” says
McCrumb. “I take brightly colored scraps of legends,
ballads, fragments of rural life, and local tragedy, and I
piece them together into a complex whole that tells
not only a story, but also a deeper truth about the
culture of the mountain South.” She has written six-teen
books.
In October hundreds of visitors enjoyed a day of
old-fashioned fun and music at the thirteenth annual
Cornshucking Frolic at Horne Creek Living Histori-cal
Farm. The frolic featured corn shucking, shelling,
and grinding, as these tasks were performed at the
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Lisa Turney (right), site manager at Horne Creek Living
Historical Farm, demonstrates a corn sheller to a young
visitor at the annual Cornshucking Frolic.
turn of the twentieth century. Visitors also enjoyed period blacksmithing, quilting, natural
dyeing, tobacco curing, woodworking, chair caning, basket making, children’s games, apple
butter and cider making, wagon rides, and a country store. More than a dozen musical
groups performed throughout the day. Guests also toured the Southern Heritage Apple
Orchard with Lee Calhoun, orchardist. The frolic’s popular cuisine was country cooking,
like homemade chicken stew, pinto beans, roasted corn, cornbread, pies, and various bev-erages.
Almost a hundred volunteers helped at the event. “Cornshuckings” or “huskings”
were an annual harvest-time tradition from colonial days through the mid-twentieth
century. Neighbors and friends shared the work of shucking and separating ears of corn,
as well as good food, courting, gossip, tall tales, and fiddle tunes.
News from State History Museums
Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex
With limited display space, changing exhibits, and a growing collection, not all of a
museum’s artifacts are always on view. The fragile condition of some objects requires that
they be stored rather than exhibited. But the museum staff occasionally has the opportunity
to bring out certain artifacts from storage for the public to see and appreciate. The Museum
of the Cape Fear does just that in the exhibit Treasures From Our Attic, opening March 13.
The exhibit team combed collections storage areas and perused artifact records to
choose objects for this exhibit. From this search, the team selected such items as a sabre
bayonet manufactured at the Fayetteville Arsenal during the Civil War, a model railroad
locomotive built in the 1930s, women’s dresses, World War II uniforms, beds, chairs,
dressers, and trunks.
Treasures From Our Attic involves more than displaying seldom-seen artifacts. Informa-tive
panels address the purposes of museums, collection goals and policies, artifact preser-vation,
and other issues. The exhibit will run through August 14.
North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort
Construction has begun at the museum’s Watercraft Center on a unique vessel that once
populated the North Carolina coastal waters. The periauger, or pirogue, a two-masted
dugout made from a split cypress log, was the common workboat of the sounds and rivers
in the eighteenth century. No physical evidence of the boat has been found, but research
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Model of a periauger constructed by Jim
Brode, volunteer at the North Carolina
Maritime Museum. A full-scale replica of
the eighteenth-century workboat is being
built this winter at the museum’s Watercraft
Center.
of contemporary descriptions and illustrations conducted by Michael Alford, former cura-tor
of maritime research at the museum and author of Traditional Workboats of North
Carolina, has informed the design of a reconstructed periauger. The project is a joint effort
of the Maritime Museum, the Perquimans County Restoration Association, and the Pro-gram
in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University (ECU). The vessel will be con-structed
at the Watercraft Center by volunteers and ECU students, while the oars, sails,
and other equipment will be made in Hertford.
The periauger will be thirty feet long, with masts twenty-five feet tall and rowing sta-tions
for ten oars. When completed in April 2004, the boat will be moved to the 1730
Newbold-White House in Hertford, where it will become the centerpiece of the
Perquimans County Restoration Association’s maritime heritage program. The association
anticipates that the vessel will provide a dynamic living history experience, visiting port
towns in the Albemarle Sound region. The public is invited to Beaufort to view the work
in progress, which will provide the museum staff valuable information about boatbuilding
methods of the early eighteenth century.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel, the staff of the Maritime Museum initiated a cam-paign
to educate the public about emergency procedures for the recovery of personal cul-tural
materials, such as letters, diaries, photographs, and books. The museum utilized news
releases to local media and radio interviews to disseminate their vital message. Unknown
to the museum staff, a similar program had already been planned by the National Park Ser-vice
(NPS) at Cape Lookout National Seashore, in conjunction with the Core Sound
Waterfowl Museum. Someone involved in the NPS project heard one of the radio inter-views
and invited the Maritime Museum to partner in their hurricane recovery venture. In
a remarkable interagency cooperative effort, the NPS provided recovery materials and
paper and furniture experts from its conservation lab in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; the
Core Sound museum donated its facilities and personnel; the Maritime Museum offered
personnel and a van; and North Carolina State University provided freezer space for the
conservation of water-damaged books. On October 1-2, representatives from the partner-ing
agencies were on hand at the Waterfowl Museum to evaluate damaged paper artifacts
and to offer recommendations for their recovery.
North Carolina Museum of History
The museum hosted the eighth annual American Indian Heritage Celebration on Novem-ber
22. Festivities included native music, traditional dances, storytelling, hands-on activi-ties,
and craft demonstrations, such as pottery making, basket weaving, bead working, and
stone carving. The celebration also showcased a new exhibit, Community and Culture:
North Carolina Indians Past and Present, which opened on October 28. The case exhibit
explores how Indians have maintained their traditions through pottery making, the game
of stickball, and corn growing. The display features pottery thrown by Senora Lynch of
the Haliwa-Saponi tribe and the late Louise Bigmeat Maney of the Eastern Band of Cher-okee
Indians, Cherokee stickball sticks collected more than a century ago, and historical
agricultural photographs.
The Southeastern Museums Conference announced that the exhibit Man-Made Marvels
won an award in the Curator’s Committee Exhibition Competition in the $25,000-
$100,000 budget category. The museum also received a $5,000 grant from American
Express to underwrite the Third Annual African American Cultural Celebration on Janu-ary
31. The event’s activities, crafts, music, entertainment, and foods reflect North
Carolina’s rich African American heritage and culture.
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The Museum of History is a member of the North Carolina Craft Coalition, which is
sponsoring the “Celebration of North Carolina Craft,” a two-year statewide commemora-tion
of Tar Heel craft traditions, artisans, and products. Proclaimed by Gov. Michael F.
Easley, the celebration will include craft organization anniversaries, grand openings, special
exhibits, and other activities throughout 2004-2005. The North Carolina Craft Coalition,
with the support of the North Carolina Arts Council, is made up of nineteen craft organi-zations
united to promote the state as a cultural tourism destination. As part of this effort,
the coalition hosts a website, www.discovercraftnc.org, designed to connect prospective tour-ists
with specific information about coalition members.
Lyl MacLean Clinard of High Point, president of the North Carolina Museum of His-tory
Associates, announced the establishment of the Associates’ first endowment for the
museum. The endowment is made possible through a generous $200,000 pledge from
longtime members Nancy and George Lyles, and their daughters, Nan Kester and Lee
Webster, all of High Point. Annual interest from the endowment will fund important pro-jects,
programs, and artifact purchases at the Museum of History. A first-floor exhibit gal-lery
will be named in honor of the Lyles family. Nancy Lyles was president of the
Museum Associates from 1988 to 1989. Her daughters have served as state membership
chairs and continue to provide strong support. The Museum Associates, with more than
12,000 members across the state, furnish invaluable assistance to the Museum of History in
Raleigh and its six regional museums. The organization also supports local museums,
historic sites, and schools across the state.
Staff Notes
David L. S. Brook, administrator of the State Historic Preservation Office, has been
named acting director of the Division of Historical Resources. He succeeds David Olson,
recently promoted to Deputy Secretary of Arts and Libraries. Brook has been with
Archives and History since 1984. He is the author of A Lasting Gift of Heritage: A History of
the North Carolina Society for the Preservation of Antiquities, 1939-1974, published by the
agency in 1997.
In the Division of State Historic Sites, Louise Huston retired in October as site manager
at Fort Dobbs, a position she had held since 1987. She was first employed at the site in
1977 as a grounds maintenance person. In recent years, she has been the sole staff member
at Fort Dobbs because of budget cuts. Jonathan Matthews has resigned as interpreter I at
House in the Horseshoe, and Tammy Medlin as interpreter II at Aycock Birthplace.
At Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens, Lisa J.Wimpfheimer has been hired as horticul-turist
and head of the Gardens Services Branch. Timothy A. Minch is the new greenhouse
manager and Judith H. Bailie the new fund-raising assistant. Linda Stancill retired as green-house
manager/floral designer. Carl Herko resigned as communications and marketing
manager, and Simon Spalding as research historian and character interpreter. Nyal Craig
Flowers separated as a painter and was succeeded by Lynn A. Ford. Julie Bledsoe has relo-cated
from the North Carolina Transportation Museum to Tryon Palace, where she will
assist the curator of collections while also serving as curator for the northeast region.
Lynn Flora joined the administrative staff of the Office of Archives and History as an
office assistant IV, succeeding Tracy Brown, who transferred to the Division of Motor
Vehicles. LeRae Umfleet has been hired as a research historian in the Research Branch.
After more than fourteen years with the Archives and Records Section, David Mitchell,
assistant state records administrator and head of the Government Records Branch, resigned
on November 1 to accept the position of university records manager at Duke University.
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Mitchell will work closely with the university archivist and the director of the Duke Med-ical
Center Archives to assist campus offices with the implementation and administration
of a records management program. Ashley Yandle, an archivist with the now defunct
records description unit of the Government Records Branch, became the information
management archivist in the Information Technology Branch. Her new responsibilities
include maintenance of the section website and the MARS database, and the publication
of finding aids on the Web in XML format.
Camille Hunt has joined the staff of the North Carolina Museum of History as a
museum registrar. Sheila Thomas-Ambat, multimedia producer, has resigned. Ann Kaplan
has assumed the position of outreach branch supervisor in the Education Section.
2 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Upcoming Events
January 14 North Carolina Museum of History: History à la Carte: Tiny Broadwick:
The First Lady of Parachuting. Author Elizabeth Whitley Roberson offers
insights into the adventurous life of Granville County native Georgia Ann
“Tiny” Broadwick, the first woman to jump from an aircraft. 12:10 to 1:00 P.M.
January 23 North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort: Microbes: Canaries of the
Sea. Dr. Hans Paerl, Kenan Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences
at UNC-Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences at Morehead City, discusses
the microscopic indicators of water quality in estuaries. 3:00 P.M.
January 30 Mountain Gateway Museum: Light in the Tunnel: The Building of the
Western North Carolina Railroad. Opening of an exhibit that focuses on the
dramatic construction of the legendary railroad in the late 1800s, during
which convict labor blasted nine tunnels through Old Fort Mountain.
January 31 North Carolina Museum of History: Family Day: African American
Cultural Celebration. Popular annual event returns for a third year with a
menu of foods, crafts, entertainment, music, and hands-on activities to celebrate
North Carolina���s African American heritage and culture. 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
February 1 Roanoke Island Festival Park: Window on the World: Photography by Jim
Lee. Opening reception for an exhibit of photographs by Jim Lee of Nags
Head, featuring scenes from his travels to Australia, Fiji, Cuba, and Mexico.
Exhibit will run in the park art gallery through February 24. 4:00 to 6:00 P.M.
February 7 Museum of the Albemarle: Civil War Naval Living History. Program
features demonstrations and displays of artillery, navigation, shipbuilding, and
medicine, lectures about the war in northeastern North Carolina, and
weapons drills. 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. on the museum green.
North Carolina Museum of History: North Carolina Slave Narratives: The
Lives of Moses Roper, Lunsford Lane, Moses Grandy, and Thomas H. Jones.
Editor William L. Andrews discusses his compilation of four autobiographies,
which exemplified the struggles of slaves and helped strengthen the
abolitionist movement. A book signing follows the program. 3:00 P.M.
Roanoke Island Festival Park: North Carolina School of the Arts
Student Film Festival. Fourth annual festival presenting the school’s most
acclaimed and award-winning student productions. 7:30 P.M.
February 11 North Carolina Museum of History: History à la Carte: Serving in a
Segregated Army. Fred Farmer, retired army aviator and paratrooper, shares
his experiences in the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, an all-African
American unit, and as a pilot in the army. 12:10 to 1:00 P.M.
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Upcoming Events
February 14 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: Garden Lecture: Landscape
Pruning: The Why, When, and Wherefore. Dr. Tom Glasgow,
Craven County Cooperative Extension director and a certified arborist,
will discuss the importance of correctly pruning trees and shrubs. 10:00 A.M.
in the visitor center auditorium. $4 admission fee.
February 14-15 Roanoke Island Festival Park: A Civil War Living History Weekend.
Two-day commemoration of the 142nd anniversary of the Battle of
Roanoke Island, including reenactors of soldiers and sailors, artillery
demonstrations, a recruiting station, and mid-nineteenth-century trades.
Saturday, 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., and Sunday, 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.
February 26 Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex: Arsenal Roundtable:
Red, White, Blue, and Black: A History of Black Americans in
the Military. Professor Charles Anderson Jr. discusses the contributions of
African American soldiers and units in the American armed forces. 7:00 P.M.
February 28 North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort: Family Day: Sailors’ Arts
and Skills. Features scrimshaw collection of Scudday Sullivan of Edenton,
which also includes whale teeth and baleen carved into utilitarian objects.
11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: Scouting Out Tryon Palace. A
fun-filled day especially for Girl Scouts, featuring tours of the palace and
three historic houses, take-home projects, colonial games, and hands-on
activities. 9:00 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. $8 admission fee for scouts, $12 for adults.
Reservations and prepayment required. Scout leaders should call the Coastal
Carolina Girl Scout Council at (800) 558-9297, ext. 118, by February 13.
March 7 Roanoke Island Festival Park: Seventh Annual Priceless Pieces Past
and Present Quilt Extravaganza. Opening reception for the popular
quilt show, organized by the Teacup Quilters and displaying old and new
quilts made by or belonging to Dare County residents. 2:00 to 4:00 P.M.
Demonstrations and activities are scheduled throughout March, including a
lecture and slide show by Louise Benner, assistant curator at the North
Carolina Museum of History, on March 11. Call (252) 475-1500 for
additional information.
March 10 North Carolina Museum of History: History à la Carte: Women
Soldiers in the Civil War. Lauren Cook Wike, co-author of They Fought
Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War, explains why more
than 250 women, North and South, left the home front for the battlefield.
12:10 to 1:00 P.M.
March 13 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: Garden Lecture: Organic
Gardening. Palace horticulturalist Lisa J.Wimpfheimer shares methods of
gardening without chemicals, addressing the basics of building soil and
managing pests. 10:00 A.M. in the visitor center auditorium. $4 admission fee.
March 14 North Carolina Museum of History: An Teach Ciuin (The Quiet
House). This traditional Irish house party features tunes played in pubs
across rural Ireland. Co-sponsored by PineCone. 3:00 to 4:00 P.M.
March 17-21 North Carolina Museum of History: Artist at Work: Dave Wofford.
Bookmaker Wofford demonstrates time-honored tools and techniques for
stitching together a book. 1:00 to 3:00 P.M.
March 18 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: Lecture: Free Black Slave-holders
in North Carolina. Dr. Darin J. Waters discusses slaveholding
among free blacks, particularly in North Carolina. Cosponsored by the
James City Historical Society. 7:00 P.M.
Colleges and Universities
Barton College
Dr. William Jerry MacLean retired from the Department of History and Social Sciences in
May. Oscar Jefferson Broadwater has been named associate professor of history.
Duke University
The Duke University Center for the Study of Medical Ethics and Humanities will host a
conference on April 23-25 that will examine the relationships between poetry and
medicine. Vital Lines, Vital Signs will explore the uses of poetry in the practice of medicine,
the influence of medical themes in poetry in different times and cultures, and the theoretical
and philosophical connections between the disciplines. A number of internationally renowned
authors, poets, and medical professionals, including Rafael Campo, Lucille Clifton, Jack
Coulehan, Mark Doty, Li-Young Lee, Kathryn Montgomery, Sharon Olds, Suzanne Poirier,
Reynolds Price, Alan Shapiro, and John Stone, are scheduled to participate. For further
information, visit the conference website, http://PoetryandMedicineConference.mc.duke.edu,
or call Megan Davidson at the center, (919) 668-9007.
Mount Olive College
On October 4, Dr. Alan K. Lamm presented a paper titled, “Perfect in Combat: General
John A. Logan, 1826-1886,” at the 38th annual Northern Great Plains History Confer-ence
in Fargo, North Dakota.
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Upcoming Events
March 21 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: African American Historic
Downtown Walking Tour. This popular tour of sixteen blocks of
historic New Bern returns with the advent of spring. Learn about three
hundred years of African American history in this ninety-minute walking
tour. 2:00 P.M. $4 admission fee.
March 21-23 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: 36th Annual Tryon Palace
Decorative Arts Symposium. This year’s symposium focuses upon the
theme of North Carolina arts and crafts. Lectures, tours, and social events
are being planned in cooperation with the East Carolina University
Division of Continuing Studies.
March 27 Reed Gold Mine: 25th Annual Gold Rush Run. Events include a half
marathon, an 8K run, a mile fun run, and a competitive walk. Pre-registration
by runners is recommended. 8:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Fee for
participants.
March 28 Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex: Historical Entertainment.
Seasonal celebration of traditional family entertainment in the Victorian era
features craft booths demonstrating construction of miniature maypoles, paper
dolls, valentine cornucopias, and maple leaf crowns. 1:00 to 5:00 P.M.
April 24 Mountain Gateway Museum: Pioneer Day. Twentieth annual event that
features food, craft demonstrations, handcrafted items, and traditional music,
including the bluegrass band, Strings of Five. 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
April 27-28 Reed Gold Mine: Heritage Days. Area fourth graders and their teachers
learn about North Carolina history and natural resources through craft
demonstrations, studies of past life-styles, and tours of the underground
facilities. 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. Fee for panning. Group reservations for
panning and tours required. Call Susan Smith at (704) 721-4653 for
reservations.
Wake Forest University
Two members of the history department presented papers at the Southern Historical Asso-ciation
meeting at Houston in November. J. Howell Smith spoke on “Honorable Beggars:
The History of Philanthropy and Fund Raising,” and Michele K. Gillespie addressed the
topic, “Defining Slavery and Freedom in the Early National South: Runaway White
Apprentices in their Own Defense.” Two other professors gave presentations in October.
William Connell lectured on “It was a Miracle They Did Not Kill Me: Race, Violence,
and Legitimacy in Seventeenth-Century Mexico City” to the Reunión de Historiadores
Mexicanos, Estadounidenses y Canadienses at Monterrey on October 4. Simone M. Caron
addressed the New England Historical Association meeting at Providence, Rhode Island
on October 24. Her paper was titled, “Mothers, Doctors, and Neonaticide in Rhode
Island, 1874-1938.”
Two other members of the department had books published in 2003. Sarah Watts’
Rough Rider in the White House: Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Desire was published by
the University of Chicago Press, while UNC Press published Foul Means: The Formation of
a Slave Society in Virginia, 1660-1740 by Anthony S. Parent Jr. The classic four-volume
history of Wake Forest College by George W. Paschal and Bynum Shaw is now available
on compact disk, with a new introduction by J. Edwin Hendricks.
State, County, and Local Groups
Cape Fear Museum
The science and technology behind everyday devices was the focus of a touring exhibit
that opened at the museum on October 1. How Things Work, inspired by the book of the
same title by eminent physicist Dr. H. Richard Crane, featured the inner works of twenty-one
interactive gadgets, including a lock, a light switch, and a traffic signal. The exhibit
focused on six primary technological areas—the bimetallic strip, gears and pulleys, locks
and brakes, electric generators and motors, the use of electricity, and the generation and
control of sound. How Things Work was developed by the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
with major funding from the National Science Foundation. The touring exhibition is
managed by the Association of Science-Technology Centers, Inc., and sponsored locally
by GE Nuclear Energy, WECT, Cumulus Broadcasting, and New Hanover County.
Caswell County Historical Association
Tom Magnuson, founder and director of the Trading Path Preservation Association, was
the featured speaker at the October 14 meeting of the historical association. He presented
an update on discoveries, both environmental and in the written record, since he last
addressed the group in 1999, concerning the divergent routes of the Native American
trading path as it coursed through Caswell County.
Chapel Hill Historical Society
The society continues to feature prominent area historians in its monthly programs. On
October 19, noted historian and documentary filmmaker Dr. William R. Ferris captivated
a full house with a lively and humorous lecture on “Memory and Sense of Place in the
American South.” The discussion emphasized the importance of music, particularly Missis-sippi
Delta blues, in southern culture. Dr. Ferris musically illustrated his remarks with solo
vocal and guitar performances of blues, rock and roll, and country music. Dr. Ferris is the
Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of History at UNC-Chapel Hill, senior
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associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South, former chairman of
the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a fellow of the American Folklore
Society.
Dr. Harry L. Watson addressed the society on November 16 with an overview of
Orange County history. Dr. Watson has been a professor of history at UNC-Chapel Hill
since 1976 and is the director of the Center for the Study of the American South. He spe-cializes
in the antebellum South, the Jacksonian era, and North Carolina history.
Lower Cape Fear Historical Society
The society recently announced the online availability of more than 1,200 historic photo-graphs
from its archival collection. The photographs date from 1850 and depict a variety
of topics of local interest. The society plans to digitize and mount additional photographs
from its collection, as well as others as they are donated. The images may be viewed at
www.latimerhouse.org/collections/photos.php.
Murfreesboro Historical Association
On September 25, the association celebrated the successful conclusion of its ambitious
campaign to provide designated endowment funds for its historic properties, with a cock-tail
buffet at the Hertford Academy. A total of $200,000 was pledged to establish individ-ual
endowments for the continued maintenance, protection, and enhancement of the
Roberts-Vaughan House (ca. 1805), Hertford Academy (ca. 1811), the William Rea
Museum (ca. 1790), the Wheeler House (ca. 1810), the Winborne Store and Law Office
(ca. 1870), and the Murfree-Smith Law Office (ca. 1800).
Several of these historic structures were showcased in the eighteenth annual Candlelight
Christmas Tour on December 8 and 9. As in previous years, the event was a progressive
dinner featuring such North Carolina delicacies as seafood bisque, smoked turkey, country
ham, and smoked peanuts. Dulcimer and fiddle players, violinists, a handbell choir, and
several soloists and quartets performed seasonal music throughout the historic district.
Twelve historic buildings, each decorated to illustrate a verse of “The Twelve Days of
Christmas,” were visited on the tour.
New Bern Historical Society
The society is seeking donations to help underwrite the costs of additional land, an access
road, and visitor facilities at the site of the 1862 Battle of New Bern, which opened the
door to the Federal occupation of eastern North Carolina during the early days of the
Civil War. The society presently owns twenty-four acres of the battlefield, which is listed
on the National Register of Historic Places. To further its dual mission of preserving the
site while making it more accessible to the public, the society hopes to raise $143,000 for
the purchase of additional acreage for parking, shelter, restrooms, and recreational facilities.
Reenactors of the 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, which fought in the battle
under the command of Col. Zebulon B. Vance, have already raised a considerable sum
towards the erection of a regimental monument at the battlefield park. Contributors of
$125 or more will be acknowledged on a permanent roll of honor to be prominently dis-played
at the site. To make a pledge, or for further information, write to: New Bern Bat-tlefield
Preservation Project, New Bern Historical Society, P.O. Box 119, New Bern, NC
28563.
On September 12, Dr. Newsom Williams, former president of the society, was pre-sented
the prestigious Ruth Coltrane Cannon Award for outstanding contributions to his-toric
preservation in North Carolina.
2 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
North Carolina Society of Historians
For the second time in four years, military historian Wilbur D. Jones Jr. was honored with
two prizes at the society’s 62d annual awards banquet in Morehead City. Jones received
the Willie Parker Peace History Book Award for A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs of a War-time
Boomtown, his social history of the Wilmington home front during World War II. He
also earned the D. T. Smithwick Newspaper Article Award for a series of four op-ed
pieces in the Wilmington Star-News about Wilmingtonians who served in the war. Jones is
a native of Wilmington and a retired U.S. Navy captain. He also received two society
awards in 1999 for his services as volunteer chairman of the Wartime Wilmington Com-memoration
coalition.
North Caroliniana Society
The society is currently soliciting grant proposals for the 2004 cycle of Archie K. Davis
Fellowships. Designed to encourage research in North Carolina history and culture, the
program grants stipends to cover a portion of travel and subsistence expenses while fellows
conduct research. More than two hundred fellowships have been awarded since the incep-tion
of the program in 1987. The deadline for submission of proposals is March 1. For
further information, visit the society’s website, www.ncsociety.org, or write to Dr. H. G. Jones,
North Caroliniana Society, UNC Campus Box 3930, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890.
Phoenix Historical Society of Edgecombe County
On November 22 the society held its annual educational program. An abbreviated genealogy
research session provided instruction on the basic steps of tracing an African American family
lineage by using comprehensive research methods. Local history researcher C. Rudolph
Knight and genealogist Lawrence Jones conducted the workshop for fifteen participants.
Dorothy Spruill Redford, executive director of Somerset Place, was the featured speaker.
She discussed African American genealogy and the importance of historical objects and struc-tures
to mainstream American history. The speech was followed by a reception with a book
signing and the viewing of artwork by Richard D. Wilson, a local African American artist.
The society will celebrate Black History Month on February 21, focusing on the theme,
“The Education of African Americans in Edgecombe County, 1881-1970.” A panel discus-sion
will feature graduates of the county’s four former African American high schools explor-ing
their personal educational experiences. The alumni association of each school will display
artifacts and memorabilia. Dr. Willa Coffield is tentatively scheduled to speak on the legacy
of the Bricks School, a leading institution of higher learning in the county from the early
1880s through the 1930s. Participants will also have an opportunity to view her documen-tary
video about the school. The celebration will conclude with a reception. All events will
be held in the Edgecombe County Administrative Building, 201 St. Andrews Street,
Tarboro, N.C. For additional information, contact the society at (252) 641-0294.
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 2 9
[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the presidential address delivered by Mrs. Cotten at the meeting of the
Historical Society of North Carolina at Elon University on October 24, 2003. Mrs. Cotten retired in
December 2002 as head of the reference staff of the North Carolina Collection at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the editor of Thomas Wolfe’s Composition Books: The North State
Fitting School, 1912-1915 and is an active member of the Thomas Wolfe Society.
“I don’t know that all is forgiven but they asked me to make a
speech”: Thomas Wolfe and the 1936 Meeting of the North
Carolina Literary and Historical Association
By Alice R. Cotten
All was ready for the annual big event in the cultural life of North Carolina, the meetings
of the organizations that carried on the literary, historical, and artistic traditions of the
state. Foremost among them was the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association
(NCLHA), organized in 1900 “to collect, preserve, produce, and disseminate State litera-ture
and history, to encourage public and school libraries, to establish an historical
museum, to inculcate a literary spirit among our people, to correct printed misrepresenta-tions
concerning North Carolina, and to engender an intelligent, healthy State pride in the
rising generation.”1
The programs were printed, showing that on Thursday evening, December 3, 1936, at
8:00 P.M. at the Woman’s Club in Raleigh, William T. Polk of Warrenton, described in
publicity as a “rare combination of lawyer and short story writer,”2 would give his presi-dential
address, titled “North Carolina Prophets and the Twentieth Century.” The next
day held equal promise: Dan Lacy would talk on “The Historical Records Survey in
North Carolina”; Ruth Ketring of the Manuscripts Department at Duke University
Library was speaking on “Charles Osborne, Quaker Abolitionist”; Archibald Henderson
would give a “Review of North Carolina Books and Authors of the Year”; and at the ses-sion
on Friday evening, Albert Ray Newsome would present the Mayflower Cup for the
best nonfiction book of the year, followed by the closing address by well-known Balti-more
newspaperman and North Carolina native Gerald Johnson, whose paper was titled
“Proposals for a History of the Future.”
But the speaker whose name aroused the most interest and got the largest type in news-paper
articles was that of a thirty-six-year-old native son of Asheville, who was scheduled
to talk on Thursday night after the presidential address. The program listed his appearance
simply: “Address: Thomas Wolfe, New York.” The article on page two of the News and
Observer on Wednesday, December 2, 1936, was titled “Wolfe to Speak at Session Here,”
relegating mention of the talks by Polk, Henderson, Johnson, and others to the body of
the article.
Wolfe’s name generated interest from all parts of the state. On November 14, Miss
Carol Nunnelee of Small’s Book Store in Washington, had written to Dr. Christopher C.
Crittenden, secretary of NCLHA, that she had read in the News and Observer that day that
Thomas Wolfe was going to speak on December 3. Miss Nunnelee was “most anxious to
hear him” and asked whether she might do so even though she was not a member of the
society. Good ambassador that he was, Dr. Crittenden replied that “All session [sic] of the
3 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
New Leaves
Association are open to the public . . . we will be glad to have you come whether or not
you are a member.” He also enclosed a membership card and encouraged her to join by
paying the annual dues of $1.00.3 Miss Philena A. Dickey, director of the Sondley Refer-ence
Library in Asheville, wrote to ask for a copy of Wolfe’s speech to add to the library’s
collection.4
It is not hard to understand why North Carolinians were anxious to hear and see
Thomas Wolfe. Born in Asheville in 1900 and graduated from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1920, Wolfe burst upon the national literary scene in 1929 with
his novel, Look Homeward, Angel. But his drawing upon personal knowledge of real people
and events for his literary characters outraged some people, including his favorite teacher
in Asheville, who wrote him that “You have crucified your family and devastated mine.”5
Even Jonathan Daniels, who had been at Chapel Hill during Wolfe’s last two years there,
in his book review in the News and Observer on October 20, 1929, charged that “In Look
Homeward, Angel, North Carolina and the South are spat upon.” Wolfe, stung by the reac-tions
of his family and friends, had not returned to North Carolina since the book was
published in October 1929.
When a letter from his old friend Bill Polk arrived in June 1936, carrying an invitation
to speak before the NCLHA in Raleigh in December, Wolfe was tempted, perhaps seeing
this as an opportunity to go home again. He wrote to Polk on June 25:
. . . it is good to know that at least I have a chance of coming home without being
escorted to the outskirts of the town by the local Vigilantes and told never to darken
their public square again. Seriously, I am very much interested in your invitation and
would like to ask for a little more information. Just how historical does a speaker have
to be when he talks to the Historical Association? . . . if I spoke, would I be
tongue-tied with terror every time I looked around and found the cold and fishy eye
of the experts upon me? As I mounted to my peroration, would I be checked in my
full flight by the presence of J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, his face fixed on me with a
very fishy look, as though to say: ‘If this be history, I’m a horse’? . . . If I got going in
Raleigh, the Lord knows what would happen—I’ve got too much to tell them—
Couldn’t you write me and tell me a little more about the thing, the kind of
gathering I would have to face and the kind of talk they usually get? . . . So far as I
know I’ll be right here in New York in December, plugging away at a new book. If I
am still here and it was still possible for me to come to Raleigh, I’d probably do it. . .
. could you go ahead and get another speaker, announce him and put him on your
program, and if you like, say that I didn’t know definitely whether I would be able to
be present? . . . Then . . . if I was here and you wanted me to come down, perhaps I
could come and without interfering with the other fellow, just attend the meeting or
get up and talk for ten or fifteen minutes. . . . The main thing, really, Bill, . . . is that I
have got started working on another big piece of work. I finally got myself clear of
the whole snarl of engagements and complications that were beginning to get me this
last year, and am back at work, and I want to keep at it as hard as I can without
feeling that I am tied down by anything outside.6
Polk knew his friend pretty well. On August 4 he wrote to Dr. Crittenden, summariz-ing
Wolfe’s letter and saying, “I doubt if we can depend on Tom . . . I am inclined to
think we had better have someone we can depend on.” Polk passed along Wolfe’s sugges-tion
that perhaps the invitation might be left open and, if he did come, he could speak in
addition to the announced speaker.7 Polk ended his letter, however, by saying that what-ever
Crittenden thought best would be satisfactory. An interesting exchange of letters
began. Crittenden wrote back to Polk saying that the matter could not be left so indefinite
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 3 1
and that he was writing Wolfe to “ask him please to say either that he will come or that he
will not.” Crittenden did so, telling Wolfe that “Large numbers of people in North
Carolina are tremendously interested in your work” and that Wolfe could leave New
York on Wednesday, December 2, and return Thursday night, December 3, if he wished.
Crittenden assured him that the association would pay the expense of his trip.8
On August 7 Polk wrote Crittenden that he had received a letter from Wolfe in which
Wolfe said that he might go to Berlin for the Olympics. Polk suggested that if Crittenden
didn’t hear from Wolfe soon it would be best to try to get another speaker. Polk did not
tell Crittenden that Wolfe’s letter did not even mention the invitation.9
Crittenden continued to court potential speakers. One who declined was Pearl Buck,
who wrote on September 10: “I do no public speaking at all except for some personal rea-son,
because my work takes all my time.”10
On September 14, Crittenden wrote to Mrs. John R. Marsh of Atlanta, inviting her to
give the main address on Friday night, December 4. Mrs. Marsh replied, thanking
Crittenden and saying she was flattered but that she was not a speaker. “I have only made
two brief speeches in my whole life and they so upset me that I was ill for days afterwards.
I have discovered that writing books and making speeches are two very different matters.”
She continued, “Even if I were a speaker, I would still be unable to accept. I lost so much
weight completing my book and strained my eyes so severely that I am having to lead a very
quiet life and will not be able to do any reading or writing for some time to come. . . .
Sincerely, Margaret Mitchell Marsh.”11
The year 1936 had been difficult for Wolfe.12 He was beset with legal problems, one
involving a young man who was selling some of Wolfe’s manuscripts, and another involv-ing
a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed Wolfe had used episodes of her life in one
of his stories. His previously announced six-volume series of novels wasn’t progressing,
and he was considering a new writing project with another theme. The April issue of the
Saturday Review of Literature carried a charge by Bernard De Voto that Wolfe was more a
product of Maxwell Perkins and the “assembly line” at Scribner’s than he was a real artist.
By July Wolfe, stung by this criticism and by frustrations with Perkins over the direction
of Wolfe’s writing, began a painful break with his editor and publisher.
Wolfe had traveled to Germany in 1935 as a literary celebrity and had liked the country
very much. Berlin was the site of the 1936 Olympics, which appealed to Wolfe. When he
learned that his German royalties from Of Time and the River were sizable and could not be
brought out of the country, he accepted an offer from a steamship line offering him half-fare
passage in return for writing some short travel articles. On July 23 Wolfe sailed from
New York on the Europa, his seventh trip to Europe. The trip proved to be a pivotal
point in his writing career.
Wolfe came to Berlin in 1936 as a celebrity, prepared to enjoy again the wine, women,
and food in the country he admired for its cleanliness, order, and appreciation of his writ-ing.
And he did, for a time. But he was also changed in some unexpected ways. While
attending the Olympic Games, seated in the box of William Dodd, the American ambassa-dor,
Wolfe cheered loudly for Jesse Owens, the great African American athlete, producing
glares from Hitler.13 He fell in love with a German woman, though he got cold feet and
abandoned her while they were on holiday in the Austrian Alps. And, significantly, Wolfe
at last understood the realities of the Nazi dictatorship. Shocked by a frightening experi-ence
on a train in which he witnessed the arrest of a German Jew trying to escape across
the border into Belgium, Wolfe began writing a powerful story about the episode, later
titled “I Have a Thing to Tell You.”
In early October Wolfe returned to New York and began writing furiously, a period
that Wolfe scholar Richard S. Kennedy described as “the third great creative period of his
3 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
career.” From early October until December 4,
1936, Wolfe wrote, according to notes by his
secretary, 721 pages, or 180,250 words, an
astonishing output, work that made up the
bulk of Wolfe���s two posthumous novels, The
Web and the Rock and You Can’t Go Home
Again.14
During this period of intense creative
activity, Wolfe wrote to Bill Polk again
about the Raleigh meeting. On October 14,
Polk wrote Crittenden: “Yesterday I
received a letter from Tom Wolfe saying that
we had better not count on him and suggest-ing
that we get another speaker. He said that
he had planned a new book and did not
want to tie himself up with any engage-ments.”
15 But the North Carolina folks did
not give up easily. On October 21, Jonathan
Daniels wrote Wolfe, inviting him to a din-ner
that he and Mrs. Daniels were having on
December 4 for speakers at the NCLHA meeting. Wolfe replied that the chance of his
being able to come to Raleigh was uncertain, though he would of course like to come,
and that if he did he would be delighted to have dinner with the Daniels family. Wolfe
praised Daniels’s work with the News and Observer and, perhaps remembering Daniels’s
review of Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe thanked his old schoolmate for the “fine and gen-erous
notice” of Of Time and the River when it was published in 1935. The rest of Wolfe’s
long letter to Daniels was about Germany and politics. Wolfe wrote, in part:
I like Germany. It is a wonderful country. . . . But I deeply fear that these grand
qualities, all this devotion and fervor and self-sacrifice, has now been given to a
misdirected purpose. . . . Europe this summer was a volcano of poisonous and
constricted hatreds which threatened to erupt at any moment. . . . I think you’d be
surprised if you saw how politically-minded I’ve become. I’ve become enormously
interested in politics for the first time in my life. . . . Meanwhile I am back at work
again on a new book. It’s all coming with a rush and, believe it or not, for several
weeks now I’ve done more than 5000 words a day.16
Daniels wrote back on November 2 saying he was delighted that Wolfe could have
dinner with him and Mrs. Daniels when he came down for the NCLHA meeting. Daniels
continued:
I am very glad to know of your interest in politics but as yours grows mine wanes. I
am delighted that tomorrow marks the end of the political season and we can come
up for a real breath of fresh air. Of course, I am tremendously enthusiastic for
Roosevelt but I am undisturbed about what the state of the nation will be on
Wednesday morning. Even if the country goes crazy and elects Landon somehow I
believe we will survive. Certainly I hope we will all survive until the night of
December 4 and I trust we will have some fun.17
On October 28, 1936, Crittenden sent a letter to members of the NCLHA announcing
the “unusually attractive program” for December 3-4.18 Thomas Wolfe was on the
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 3 3
Thomas Wolfe in Berlin, May 1935.
schedule. On November 6, Crittenden wrote to Wolfe that he and Polk were placing
Wolfe’s name on the program for Thursday evening, December 3, realizing that it might
not be possible for Wolfe to come. He assured Wolfe that if he couldn’t come, they
would get someone to fill his place.19 A letter from Polk to Crittenden on November 7
again reported that a letter from Wolfe said it was doubtful he could come and that if he
didn’t he hoped they would explain that he had not definitely promised.20
Crittenden, certainly nervous by this time, wrote Wolfe again on November 25, telling
him that his visit was arousing a lot of interest. “People have written and telephoned from
various parts of the State to ask about it, and many of your friends are looking forward to
seeing you.” Crittenden asked for a summary of Wolfe’s talk by November 30.21 On that
date Wolfe finally wrote to Crittenden. His letter said that he had delayed responding until
the last minute, hoping he could come, but that he could not because he was working “at
top speed” on a manuscript, material that he had been working on since his return from
Europe two months earlier. Wolfe said several times in his letter that he was genuinely
sorry if there had been any misapprehension about his attendance, that he had said from
the beginning that he did not know for certain that he could come and that he would pre-fer
to come as a guest than as a speaker. He added that he hoped that he would get an
invitation to attend another meeting.22 A telegram from Polk to Crittenden dated Decem-ber
2, 10:12 A.M. read: “HAVE TELEGRAM FROM THOMAS WOLFE SAYING
IMPOSSIBLE BE PRESENT PLEASE NOTIFY PAPERS.”23 The article in the News
and Observer the next day was titled: “Novelist Wolfe Out as Speaker.” It began “Thomas
Wolfe decided yesterday not to look homeward.”24
But the NCLHA meeting was a success even without Wolfe. In a front-page article
with the initially puzzling title, “Looks Critically at Speedometer Reading Habits,” the
News and Observer reported that William Polk, “40-year-old Warrenton lawyer, mayor,
and literary man,” had opened the annual meeting the previous day with a gloomy survey
honoring “prophets” such as Edward Kidder Graham, Walter Hines Page, Clarence Poe,
and others. Polk declared that the state, “whose favorite reading was the speedometer,”
must now turn its attention to tenant farming and mill villages. Dr. Alex M. Arnett filled
the spot that was to have been Wolfe’s and gave a paper on Claude Kitchin.25
Secretary Crittenden wrote to Wolfe for the final time on December 14, saying that
“post mortems are in order” and that he believed that everyone understood that Wolfe
had never definitely promised to come to the meeting. Crittenden went on to say that
many people were very disappointed, and that “I feel that in a sense you owe it to your
native State to come back and make a public appearance within the near future.” He
added, however, “I shall not venture again to put you on the program unless you have
categorically committed yourself to be present.”26
Wolfe’s letter of December 2 to Bill Polk explained his absence in more detail, men-tioning
his legal problems and his writing. Of the latter, Wolfe wrote: “I’ve just stayed in
and worked for two months now, and I haven’t even had a haircut, which of course won’t
be news to you. . . . I’m going to keep on here as hard as I can go until Christmas. . . . I’m
coming down to North Carolina in a few weeks for the first time in seven years to see a
few of you again. . . . I think also the time is coming when I may have something to say to
North Carolina that will interest it. But I’m not sure that I am ready yet.”27
In a letter written on Christmas Eve, Wolfe also told his friend Marjorie Fairbanks of
his upcoming trip to North Carolina: “Yes, I think they’ll let me come back now. I don’t
know that all is forgiven but they asked me to make a speech, which is something isn’t it?”
He added, truthfully, “Of course, I didn’t make it.”28
Though Wolfe did visit friends in Southern Pines, Chapel Hill, Warrenton, and finally,
Asheville, over the next year, he never had another opportunity to address the NCLHA
3 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
meeting and tell North Carolina whatever it was that he wanted to say. He died of tuber-culosis
of the brain at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore on September 15,
1938. He was thirty-seven years old.
Shortly after Wolfe’s death, Jonathan Daniels, giving the presidential address at the 1938
annual meeting of the NCLHA, declared that literature must awaken the South from a
lethargy of legend and remove the Civil War as the “scapegoat” for its shortcomings.
Daniels praised Wolfe for writing in this vein, calling him “an artist who saw through the
false pride, the legendary aristocracy and feeble excuse of the South.”29 And that may have
been pretty close to what Wolfe wanted to tell his native state.
Notes
1. The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. Program. 1936.
2. Christopher C. Crittenden to members of the Literary and Historical Association, October 28,
1936, in box titled “General Correspondence, 1936-1938,” in Records of the Literary and
Historical Association, State Archives, Office of Archives and History, Raleigh, hereafter cited as Lit.
& Hist. Records.
3. Lit. & Hist. Records, November 16, 1936.
4. Lit. & Hist. Records, November 16, 1936.
5. Margaret Roberts to Thomas Wolfe, undated, quoted in Richard S. Kennedy, The Window of
Memory (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1962), 183.
6. Thomas Wolfe to William T. Polk, June 25, 1936, in Elizabeth Nowell, ed., The Letters of Thomas
Wolfe (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1956), 534-536.
7. Lit. & Hist. Records, August 4, 1936.
8. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records, August 5, 1936.
9. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records, August 5, 1936.
10. Lit. & Hist. Records, September 10, 1936.
11. Lit. & Hist. Records, September 14 and 17, 1936.
12. For more information on Wolfe’s life and writing, see Kennedy, The Window of Memory, and
David Herbert Donald, Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe (Boston: Little, Brown and
Company, 1987).
13. See Donald, Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe, 386.
14. Richard S. Kennedy and Paschal Reeves, eds., The Notebooks of Thomas Wolfe (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1970), 841.
15. Lit. & Hist. Records, October 14, 1936.
16. Thomas Wolfe to Jonathan Daniels, October 23, 1936, quoted almost entirely in Nowell, The
Letters of Thomas Wolfe, 551-554. Original in Jonathan Worth Daniels Papers, Southern Historical
Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
17. Copy in Daniels Papers.
18. Christopher Crittenden to members of the Literary and Historical Association, October 28,
1936. Lit. & Hist. Records.
19. Christopher Crittenden to Thomas Wolfe, November 6, 1936. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records.
20. William T. Polk to Christopher Crittenden, November 7, 1936. Lit. & Hist. Records.
21. Christopher Crittenden to Thomas Wolfe, November 25, 1936. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records.
22. Thomas Wolfe to Christopher Crittenden, November 30, 1936. Lit. & Hist. Records.
23. Lit. & Hist. Records, December 2, 1936.
24. News and Observer, Thursday, December 3, 1936.
25. News and Observer, Friday, December 4, 1936.
26. Christopher Crittenden to Thomas Wolfe, December 14, 1936. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records.
27. Thomas Wolfe to William T. Polk, December 2, 1936, in Nowell, The Letters of Thomas Wolfe,
561-562.
28. Thomas Wolfe to Marjorie Fairbanks, December 24, 1936, in Nowell, The Letters of Thomas
Wolfe, 568-569.
29. Quoted in the News and Observer, December 2, 1938.
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 3 5
Carolina Comments
Published quarterly by the Office of Archives and History
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
Raleigh, North Carolina
Jeffrey J. Crow, Editor in Chief
Kenrick N. Simpson, Editor
Historical Publications Section
Office of Archives and History
4622 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4622
Telephone (919) 733-7442
Fax (919) 733-1439
www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hp
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Raleigh, NC
Permit No. 187

Authors and Historians Honored at Joint Annual Meeting
On Friday, November 14, members of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Associ-ation
(NCLHA) and the Federation of North Carolina Historical Societies (FNCHS) held
their annual joint meeting at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. The ses-sion
featured presentations on the revised edition of The Way We Lived in North Carolina,
the smallpox epidemic in Revolutionary-era America, and the absence of magic realism in
American literature, as well as the customary bill of awards and certificates for the year’s
best North Carolina books, secondary-school literary magazines, and local historical orga-nizations.
The occasion was a milestone for the North Carolina Book Awards, marking
the inaugural presentation of the Ragan Old North State Award and the fiftieth anniver-sary
for both the poetry and juvenile literature honors.
Jo Ann Williford, secretary-treasurer of the FNCHS, welcomed attendees to Raleigh
and introduced speakers during the afternoon portion of the program. By tradition, the
first order of business was the presentation of the 2003 Student Publication Awards, pre-sided
over by John Batchelor of Greensboro. First place in the high school division of the
literary magazine competition went to Highlands School of Highlands for its publication,
Crossroads. Second place in the category was awarded to W. G. Enloe High School of
Raleigh for Stone Soup. Third place resulted in a tie between Charles D. Owen High
School of Black Mountain for Pegasus and Ravenscroft School of Raleigh for The Living
Hand. Lee County High School of Sanford received honorable mention for The Lee High
Review. Honored with first place in the middle school division was LeRoy Martin Middle
School of Raleigh for Illusions. Second place went to Rugby Middle School of Hender-sonville
for Kaleidoscope, and third place to Seventy-First Classical Middle School of
Fayetteville for The Classical Quill. Charlotte Country Day Middle School of Charlotte
received honorable mention for Pirates’ Treasure. Five student groups were on hand to
receive their trophies or certificates.
On behalf of the Historical Society of North Carolina, Alice Cotten of Chapel Hill pre-sented
two awards. The R. D. W. Connor Award honors the best article to appear in the
North Carolina Historical Review (NCHR) during the preceding year. The winner was
Carolina
Comments
VOLUME 52, NUMBER 1 JANUARY 2004
Published Quarterly by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History
2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
A Message from the Deputy Secretary
Despite the budget crisis that has afflicted all of state
government in recent years, the Office of Archives and
History has continued to plan for the future preserva-tion
of important historical resources. Through grants
and gifts, the office has acquired, expanded, or pro-tected
several properties directly related to its pro-grams
and mission.
The City of Fayetteville has given the Museum of
the Cape Fear three tracts of property adjacent to and
just west and north of Arsenal Park. The three tracts
will permit a better interpretation of the park. The park
contains the foundations of the western wall and shops of
the U.S. Arsenal. Originally constructed
between 1838 and 1860, the arsenal received additions from the Confederate govern-ment
between 1861 and 1865. Gen. William T. Sherman destroyed the structure
during the Carolinas campaign of 1865.
For more than twenty years, the Robert Lee Humber House in Greenville has
hosted the headquarters of the Eastern Office of Archives and History. The house
once belonged to Robert Lee Humber—lawyer, legislator, visionary, and founder of
the North Carolina Museum of Art. It is listed in the National Register of Historic
Places. In 1980 Humber’s sons John and Marcel donated the house to the City of
Greenville and Pitt County to serve as the Eastern Office of Archives and History.
Unfortunately, in recent years the house has fallen into disrepair. Working with the
Humber family, the Office of Archives and History agreed to accept the property if
the city and county each provided $50,000 for badly needed repairs. While that
money will not complete all of the repairs, it will stabilize the structure until further
funds are identified. In the meantime the Eastern Office now has a permanent home.
Two Civil War battlefields also associated with Sherman’s Carolinas campaign
have received further protection. A cooperative agreement between the Department
of Cultural Resources, the U.S. Commodity Credit Corporation, and the Civil War
Preservation Trust (CWPT) will preserve important parts of Averasboro Battlefield
from future development. Under the agreement the CWPT will receive approxi-mately
$175,000 from the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program to purchase
easements from local landowners within the boundaries of the battlefield. The
department will hold the easements.
Finally, Bentonville Battlefield (formerly called Bentonville Battleground), a state
historic site categorized as one of the nation’s most endangered battlefields, will
expand by 313 acres. The North Carolina Natural Heritage Trust granted $414,000
to the CWPT so that the latter could qualify for a larger federal grant. With those
funds the CWPT will purchase land from local property owners within the bound-aries
of the 6,000-acre battlefield. Eventually, the CWPT will transfer the land to the
state historic site for further interpretation and preservation.
On November 19, 2003, the North Carolina Historical Commission approved
these transactions. Future generations of North Carolinians will benefit from the
decisions we make today to preserve the state’s history.
Jeffrey J. Crow
Mark E. Bradley, a graduate student at the
University of North Carolina (UNC) at Cha-pel
Hill, for “‘This Monstrous Proposition’:
North Carolina and the Confederate Debate
on Arming the Slaves,” which appeared in
the April 2003 issue of the NCHR. The
Hugh T. Lefler Award for the best paper
written by an undergraduate student went to
Timothy J. Williams for “Literary Societies at
Wake Forest College,” completed while he
was enrolled at Wake Forest University. Like
Bradley, Williams is now a history graduate
student at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The American Association of University
Women (AAUW) Award for Juvenile Liter-ature,
given annually since 1953, went to
Michelle Groce of Cornelius for Jasper (Novello Festival Press, 2003). Esther Lumsdon of
the Raleigh branch of the AAUW made the presentation.
Jeffrey J. Crow, deputy secretary of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History,
presented an American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) Award of Merit to
the Warren County Historical Association for publication of The Architecture of Warren
County, North Carolina, 1770s to 1860s. Accepting the award were author Kenneth
McFarland and Richard Hunter, clerk of Warren County Superior Court. Another certifi-cate
of merit recipient, Kingston Heath of UNC-Charlotte, recognized for his book, The
Patina of Place, was not present. Receiv-ing
AASLH certificates of commendation
were the Centennial Committee of the
North Carolina Nurses Association and
Nursing Board for a documentary, the
Old West Durham Neighborhood Asso-ciation
for a website, the North Carolina
Museum of History for the exhibit Man-
Made Marvels, and the Carteret County
Historical Association for development
of The History Place. Audrey Booth
accepted on behalf of the nurses’ organiza-tion,
John Schelp and Pamela Spaulding
for the Durham group, and Martha Tracy
for the Museum of History.
In the first of two afternoon presenta-tions,
Elizabeth A. Fenn of Duke Uni-versity
addressed “Pox Americana: The
Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-
1782.” At the conclusion of a brief busi-ness
meeting of the NCLHA, Joe A.
Mobley, former administrator of the Historical Publications Section, moderated a panel
discussion on “The Way We Lived in North Carolina: A Twenty-Year Retrospective.”
Sharing the stage were Sydney Nathans of Duke University and Harry L. Watson of
UNC-Chapel Hill, contributors to the original series, and William S. Price Jr. of Meredith
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 3
Author Kenneth McFarland (center) and Richard
Hunter (right), accepting on behalf of the Warren
County Historical Asosciation, hold AASLH
Awards of Merit for the publication of The
Architecture of Warren County, North Carolina, 1770s
to 1860s. Jeffrey J. Crow (left) presented the awards.
Esther Lumsdon (left) presents the AAUW
Award for Juvenile Literature to Michelle
Groce (right) for her book, Jasper.
College who, as director of the Division of
Archives and History in 1983, guided the
project that resulted in the award-winning
five-volume series.
The evening portion of the meeting began
with a social hour and dinner, followed by
the inaugural Keats and Liz Sparrow Keynote
Address by novelist Randall Kenan of Chapel
Hill. In a talk filled with humor and recom-mendations
of books, Kenan bemoaned the
fact that American fiction writers, particularly
in the South, rarely move outside the realm of
social realism into the type of magic realism
skillfully practiced by Latin American writers.
Announcements of awards resumed after the
talk, beginning with the presentation by Jo Ann
Williford of the Albert Ray Newsome Awards,
bestowed annually by the FNCHS to the
historical organizations in North Carolina judged
to have conducted the most comprehensive and
outstanding programs in local or community
historical activities during the previous year.
The winners were the Warren County Histori-cal
Association for a comprehensive architec-tural
survey, the Gates County Historical Soci-ety
for a wide range of activities, and the
Sankofa Center in Wake Forest for sponsorship
of the North Carolina Rosenwald Schools
Community Project. Accepting for the
Warren group was Richard Hunter, for the
Gates organization, Erin Seiling, and for the
Sankofa Center, Nyoni Collins.
Sue Hatcher of the Historical Book Club of
Greensboro presented the Sir Walter Raleigh
Award for Fiction to Pamela Duncan of Gra-ham
for her novel, Plant Life (Delacorte Press,
2003). Sally Buckner of Raleigh presented the fif-tieth
Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry to
Michael Chitwood of Chapel Hill for Gospel
Road Going (Tryon Publishing Company, 2002).
Presiding over the evening’s festivities was
Jerry C. Cashion, president of the NCLHA,
who announced the winner of the first Ragan
Old North State Award for Nonfiction. The
prize is named for Sam Ragan (1915-1996),
poet, critic, first secretary of the Department of
4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Novelist Randall Kenan delivers the inaugural
Keats and Liz Sparrow Keynote Address at the
joint annual meeting of NCLHA and FNCHS.
(Above) Pamela Duncan (right), author of
Plant Life, holds the Sir Walter Raleigh
Award for Fiction. Sue Hatcher (left) of the
Historical Book Club of Greensboro made
the presentation. (Below) Sally Buckner
presents the fiftieth Roanoke-Chowan
Award for Poetry to Michael Chitwood,
author of Gospel Road Going.
Cultural Resources, and longtime booster of arts and letters in North Carolina. The new
award is the successor to the Patterson Cup, presented by the NCLHA between 1905 and
1922, and the Mayflower Cup, awarded from 1931 to 2002. The Society of Mayflower
Descendants withdrew sponsorship of the award for nonfiction (see Carolina Comments,
October 2002, or http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/affiliates/lit-hist/awards/awards.htm). Taking the
inaugural honor was Timothy Silver of Boone,
a professor at Appalachian State University
specializing in environmental history for his
book, Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains:
An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in
Eastern America (UNC Press, 2003).
The R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award,
bestowed annually by the NCLHA for signifi-cant
lifetime contributions to the literary heri-tage
of North Carolina, went to Wilma
Dykeman of Asheville, novelist, historian, and
pioneer environmentalist. Robert Anthony,
curator of the North Carolina Collection at
UNC-Chapel Hill, made the presentation. In
the final ceremony of the evening, Cashion, as
chairman of the North Carolina Historical
Commission, presented the Christopher
Crittenden Memorial Award jointly to
Catherine Bishir and Michael Southern, both
of the State Historic Preservation Office, the former recently retired. The two were hon-ored
for lengthy careers dedicated to the documentation and preservation of the architec-tural
heritage of the state, culminating in the publication by UNC Press of a three-volume
series of guidebooks. The award, presented annually since 1970, recognizes lifetime con-tributions
to the preservation of North Carolina history, and honors Crittenden, director
of the Department of Archives and History from 1935 to 1968. Bishir and Southern were
likewise honored in September by the Southeastern Society of Architectural Historians,
which presented the authors of the outstanding series of architectural guidebooks with a
special award at the annual meeting of the society in Savannah, Georgia.
N.C. Literary and Historical Association Life Members
The constitution of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association provides that a
complete listing of the organization’s life members be published annually in Carolina Com-ments.
The following listing reflects that membership as of September 1, 2003.
J. W. Abernathy Jr.
Bass Farms, Inc.
Jackson Bebber
Mrs. John Behnken
Irwin Belk
John M. Belk
Doris Betts
Mrs. Karl Bishopric
Elizabeth Buford
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph B.
Cheshire Jr.
Dr. James W. Clark
Walter Clark
James A. Clodfelter
Mr. and Mrs. Marion S.
Covington
Mr. and Mrs. William N.
Craig
Grover C. Criswell
Mrs. Burke Davis
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Dillard
Dixon III
Dr. John E. Dotterer
Thomas A. Gray
J. W. Grisham
Margaret Harper
Mrs. Joseph H. Hayworth
High Point University
George Watts Hill
Dr. and Mrs. Lara G. Hoggard
Mr. and Mrs. Robert S.
Hudgins
John L. Humber
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 5
Jerry C. Cashion (left) awards the inaugural
Ragan Old North State Award for Nonfiction
to Timothy Silver (right) for his book, Mount
Mitchell and the Black Mountains.
Jerome Janssen
Dr. Thomas E. Jeffrey
Dr. H. G. Jones
Dr. Doris King
Dr. Richard H. Kohn
Calvin Battle Koonce
Marvin B. Koonce Jr.
Mrs. Walter McEachern
Dr. Donald Mathews
Mrs. Fred W. Morrison
Miss Jesse R. Moye
Hugh H. Murray
Dr. Susan K. Nutter
Dr. William C. Powell
William S. Powell
Dr. Norris W. Preyer
Alfred L. Purrington III
Robert A. Ragan
W. Trent Ragland Jr.
John Dillard Reynolds
William Neal Reynolds II
David T. Richardson
Richard Richardson
John Charles Rush
Robert G. Scruggs
Tony Seamon
George Shinn
Dr. W. Keats Sparrow
Roy Thompson
Mrs. J. Fred Von Canon
Elizabeth C. Watson
Dr. Harry Watson
Bruce E. Whitaker
Dr. Pepper Worthington
Bentonville Battlefield to Acquire More Land
A state grant of $414,000 will enable the recently renamed Bentonville Battlefield State
Historic Site to more than double the acreage under its protective care. The grant was
awarded to the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) by the North Carolina Natural
Heritage Trust Fund, which was established by the General Assembly in 1987 to facilitate
the acquisition by designated agencies, including the Department of Cultural Resources,
of state parks, nature preserves, and historic sites. Earlier this year, the CWPT included
Bentonville among the ten most endangered Civil War battlefields, threatened by creeping
development from the Research Triangle. The award was announced at a September 12
news conference at the visitor center. Former congressman J. Alex McMillan, author and
mapmaker Mark A. Moore of the Research Branch, and site manager Donny Taylor were
the featured speakers.
The state grant will qualify the CWPT for a federal grant of $683,000 from the Ameri-can
Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service. An additional $269,000
must then be raised by the CWPT to complete the funding with which to purchase 313
acres in scattered parcels along Harper House Road, east of the visitor center. When the
sale is finalized, the land will then be turned over to the state.
The Battle of Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865, encompassed 6,000 acres in southern
Johnston County. The state began acquiring the battleground in 1957, and the site has
grown incrementally over the years to the current holding of 233 acres. The pending
acquisition contains remnants of earthworks constructed by both armies. The battlefield
was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996. At its November meeting, the
North Carolina Historical Commission approved a proposal to change the name of the site
from “Battleground” to “Battlefield,” more accurately reflecting the enormous historical
importance of the battle.
Revised Edition of The Way We Lived in North Carolina Published
The North Carolina Office of Archives and History and UNC Press have collaborated to
issue a revised and updated single-volume edition of The Way We Lived in North Carolina,
originally published in 1983 in five volumes. Edited by Joe A. Mobley, the new edition
includes a set of twenty-eight full-page maps produced by Mark A. Moore, Archives and
History research historian and web-master.
The first edition rode the crest of enthusiasm for social history, appearing in an era when
professors, graduate students, and public historians in increasing numbers were looking at the
past from the perspective of the common man and woman. The concept for the series was
novel but simple: weaving research and interpretation around dozens of historic sites, the
authors created a social history of North Carolina from pre-colonial times to the present.
6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Underwritten in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the
original publication of The Way We Lived in North Carolina was the culmination of a six-year
project. Larry Misenheimer, then assistant administrator of the Historic Sites Section,
and William S. Price Jr., director of Archives and History, served as principal consultants.
They persuaded Sydney Nathans, a history professor at Duke University but not at that
point in his career a specialist in the Tar Heel State, to serve as general editor. That “out-sider”
perspective proved invaluable, making the series especially useful to the reader with
no preconceptions about the state’s past.
The first edition met a ready audience. Historian Guion Griffis Johnson, who in the
1930s had pioneered the study of social history with her Ante-Bellum North Carolina, hailed
the series and credited the authors for their ability to encapsulate the central themes of
state history and identify the critical forces at work. The American Historical Association
in 1984 honored the series with the James Harvey Robinson Prize.
The new edition preserves the organizational arrangement of the original, with five dis-crete
parts prepared by historians Elizabeth A. Fenn and Peter H. Wood, Harry L. Watson,
Thomas H. Clayton, Sydney Nathans, and Thomas C. Parramore. Editor Mobley extended
the original story down to the present, incorporated into the main text sidebars prepared by
Jean B. Anderson for the original volumes, and selected hundreds of new photographs.
Mark A. Moore, responsible for creating the maps for the new edition, has also
designed a website accessible at www.waywelivednc.com, or by links on the Archives and
History site, www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us. The site is intended to complement the book and to
extend its audience. On the website are the full set of specially designed maps, approxi-mately
20 percent of the text, and over one hundred photographs from the book. Students
of state history, or anyone anticipating a visit to one of the state’s twenty-seven historic
sites, will find the website a useful portal through which to learn more about North
Carolina’s past and to plan their field trips.
Jeffrey J. Crow notes that the new edition appears in the agency’s centennial year.
Founded in 1903 as the North Carolina Historical Commission, Archives and History, in
the words of longtime director Christopher Crittenden, was an advocate of “history for all
the people.” The Way We Lived in North Carolina, in Crow’s estimation, “embodies what
Archives and History has done for a century so well.”
The book, available in hardcover ($34.95) and paperback ($24.95), can be ordered
directly from UNC Press, P.O. Box 2288, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2288, or can be
purchased at bookstores throughout the state. The companion website is now online.
Hurricane Isabel Batters Sites, Museums, and Historical Markers
On September 18, Hurricane Isabel struck North Carolina, making landfall over the
Outer Banks and northern coast. Some of the most severe destruction occurred in Dare
and Chowan Counties, each with a state historic site. Northeastern sites escaped serious
damage but had numerous downed trees, loss of power, and minor damage to buildings.
Somerset Place lost approximately thirty-five trees, while more than two hundred fell at
Roanoke Island Festival Park (RIFP).
Historic Edenton was perhaps the worst hit. The town was heavily damaged, with
numerous trees down. The chimney collapsed on the Ziegler House, home to the visitor
center, so division craftsmen covered part of the roof with a tarpaulin to prevent further
injury. The Iredell House had ceiling, plaster, and fence damage. The 1782 Barker House
sustained serious damage and remains closed indefinitely: the house was flooded waist-deep
and a three-by-five-foot hole was torn in the siding on the southeast corner of the
building. At the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, a falling tree damaged a new ramp
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 7
and stairway. The gutters and the edge
of the roof on the rear of the building
were also damaged. The entire site lost
power for about a week. The North
Carolina Forest Service, the National
Guard, and staff from other sites
helped cut and remove trees and
debris for days. The visitor center
reopened on September 29.
The Outer Banks History Center
(OBHC) in Manteo was significantly
impacted by the hurricane. All OBHC
staff assisted with preparations for the
storm on September 14-15. The State
Archives’ van was dispatched to Manteo and selected collections were transported to
Raleigh as a precautionary measure on September 15. The NASA exhibit was dismounted
and moved to a secure and climatically stable National Park Service facility on the island’s
northern end. The center closed to the public at noon on September 16 when Dare
County officials ordered mandatory evacuations from Roanoke Island. While the center
lost power for several days, the stack area remained secure, and no harm was done to any
of the archival and library holdings by adverse environmental conditions.
The hurricane did no structural dam-age
to buildings or the Elizabeth II at
RIFP, but power was out for five days,
and downed pines, cedars, and myrtles
blocked every path in the interpretive
area and rendered the boardwalks
impassable. Many more trees leaned
precariously throughout the site. The
grounds needed extensive cleanup
before the site was safe for visitors. The
staffs of RIFP, the OBHC, and other
historic sites along with community vol-unteers
pitched in with the grounds
work and tree clearance during the
week of September 22-26. The NASA
exhibit was reinstalled in the OBHC gallery on September 26 to be ready for the reopen-ing
of the park the following day. The OBHC reopened on September 29.
Scores of trees and power lines were down in the vicinity of Historic Halifax, closing
highways. Shingles were blown off historic buildings, and a window was damaged at the
Montfort House. Power was restored after five days. Staff and inmates undertook light
debris removal. At Somerset Place, miraculously, there was no damage to buildings,
although about twenty of the very large cypress trees, some more than 350 years old, were
down along roads and canals, and in the yard. The site and many homes in the isolated
area remained without power for more than a week. The National Guard distributed
water and ice. Historic Bath suffered tree damage, particularly at St. Thomas Church, and
minor water damage at two houses. Tryon Palace lost some trees, but historic buildings
were high enough above the Trent River to escape flooding. Damage in the southeast at
Aycock Birthplace, Bentonville Battlefield, Brunswick Town, CSS Neuse, and Fort Fisher
8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Workers remove a tree from the side of the Ziegler
House, the visitor center for Historic Edenton. Note
the collapsed chimney on the roof.
This fallen tree across the railing of the porch of a
shed was one of more than two hundred toppled by
Hurricane Isabel at Roanoke Island Festival Park.
was minor. In the Piedmont several
sites lost a few trees or power for a few
days but had no significant damage.
Two of the three state maritime
museums felt the fury of Isabel. The
museum boatshop on Roanoke Island
suffered such extensive structural dam-age
that the building, owned by the
Town of Manteo, was condemned.
Branch manager Scott Whitesides had
to move to an office in RIFP, where
he can be reached at (252) 475-1500,
ext. 241. The main building of the
maritime museum in Beaufort lost
only a few shingles. But across the
street, a number of piers supporting the decks behind the Watercraft Center were broken,
while the center received an unscheduled sand blasting and will require a new coat of
paint. The N.C. Maritime Museum at Southport emerged from the storm unscathed.
The State Highway Historical Marker Program also suffered the effects of the high
winds. The northeastern corner of the state, particularly Dare, Currituck, Chowan, and
Bertie Counties, received the brunt of the damage. In Edenton two markers, dedicated to
Francis Corbin and Thomas C. Manning, were snapped, the latter inadvertently by local
clean-up crews. Thirty marker posts were broken, the bulk of those on the Outer Banks.
The N.C. Department of Transportation, co-sponsor of the program along with the
Office of Archives and History, agreed to apply Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) funds to the repair and replacement costs. Total damages to signs and posts as a
result of Hurricane Isabel are estimated at $10,000-$12,000. Even at that, the damages did
not match the toll of Hurricanes Bertha and Fran in 1996. Those storms snapped markers
primarily across the central coast and in the Cape Fear region, resulting in more than forty
broken markers.
Department of Transportation History Jointly Published
How did North Carolina triumph over Tennessee for a major portion of the Blue Ridge
Parkway during the Great Depression? Why did the state aggressively pave rural highways
following World War II but underestimate the growing importance of interstates? What
influences led the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to escalate
highway construction while beginning to develop alternative public transportation in the
closing years of the twentieth century?
These questions and others are answered in a new book,
Paving Tobacco Road: A Century of Progress by the North Carolina
Department of Transportation, written by Walter R. Turner,
historian at the North Carolina Transportation Museum
(NCTM). This book traces the development of the agency
from its beginnings in 1915 as the North Carolina State High-way
Commission through the first years of the twenty-first
century. Its publication was a cooperative effort between the
Historical Publications Section of the Division of Historical
Resources, the Administrative Section and the NCTM (both
within the Division of State Historic Sites), and the NCTM
Foundation. Funding was provided by the foundation.
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 9
This fence along the carriage road at Somerset Place
was severely damaged by fallen trees and high winds
during the hurricane.
Paving Tobacco Road tells the story of
how North Carolina developed the reputa-tion
in the 1920s as “The Good Roads
State.” One chapter is devoted to alternative
modes of public transportation, including
the state’s ferry, bicycle, and rail programs.
Turner identifies many of the leaders, both
political and professional, who helped cre-ate
North Carolina’s extensive transporta-tion
network. D. G. Martin, moderator of
UNC-TV’s Bookwatch, calls the book “a
must read for anyone who wants to under-stand
why North Carolina’s image changed
from the ‘Rip Van Winkle’ state to ‘leader
of the New South.’”
This title is annotated and indexed and
includes appendixes that list highway fund
revenues through 2002. A selected bibliography provides sources for further reading on
transportation history. The text is illustrated by more than ninety black-and-white pic-tures,
including many early-twentieth-century photographs never before published, and a
dozen attractive maps, drawn by Mark A. Moore of the Division of Historical Resources,
Brian Padfield of NCDOT, and others.
Paving Tobacco Road (181 pages, paperback, illustrated, indexed) sells for $26.75 plus
$5.00 shipping. Order from the Historical Publications Section (CC), Office of Archives
and History, 4622 Mail Service Center, 120 West Lane Street, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622.
For credit card (VISA and MasterCard) orders, visit the Historical Publications Shop at
http://store.yahoo.com/nc-historical-publications/ or call (919) 733-7442.
Duke Homestead Preserves Tobacco Heritage
In a time when the tobacco auction system has all but disappeared and mechanization has
replaced traditional harvesting methods, visitors to Duke Homestead can still hear the
chant of the auctioneer, see a mule trudge through the field as men harvest leaves by hand,
and smell wood burning as the curing barn is filled with green tobacco. Duke Home-stead’s
2003 Tobacco Harvest Festival and
Mock Tobacco Auction on September 20
evoked such traditional tobacco farm life.
Visitors not only viewed the harvest, but
some participated in a tobacco looping
contest. Others enjoyed the foods cooked
over an open fire and woodstove, tours of
the historic area, and bluegrass entertain-ment.
Children played nineteenth-century
games and took turns doing laundry at the
washboard. Professor Robert Durden of
Duke University was on hand to autograph
his new book, Bold Entrepreneur: A Life of
James B. Duke.
The rapid disappearance of the tobacco
auction system led the Duke Homestead
1 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Lyndo Tippett (left), secretary of the North
Carolina Department of Transportation, looks on
as Governor Michael F. Easley (left center) accepts
a copy of Paving Tobacco Road from author Walter
Turner (right center) and Jeffrey J. Crow (right),
deputy secretary of the Office of Archives and
History.
Thomas Ellis and Wilson Crabtree, volunteers at
Duke Homestead, demonstrate the nearly
forgotten art of tobacco looping at the Tobacco
Harvest Festival.
Education and History Corporation (DHEHC) to organize a Tobacco Auctioneers and
Ticket Markers Reunion in 2002. With a grant from the N.C. Humanities Council, the
corporation hired two oral historians to interview six auctioneers: Jimmy Joliff, at eighty,
the oldest known auctioneer; Stuart Cutts, an auctioneer whose father and son both
worked as auctioneers; Bob Cage, a world champion auctioneer; Sherwood Stewart, who
sold tobacco for forty-two years; Edward Stephenson, whose father and uncles were all in
the tobacco business; and Jane Squires, the first female auctioneer.
The interviews, now available at the site library, offer rare glimpses into a vanishing
profession. Most auctioneers became interested in the craft because of family connections
to tobacco. Stephenson heard his father practice his chant daily in the morning shower.
Cutts’s father also was an auctioneer who chanted at home and encouraged his son to try
it. Squires’s father was an auctioneer as well. The auctioneers learned the trade primarily
by observation. Stewart attended an auctioneering school; at fourteen he was the youngest
student. Squires took a licensing exam in South Carolina and apprenticed with an auction-eer
for a season. Auctioneering was more than a fast and musical chant. With hundreds
of thousands of pounds of tobacco to sell in a few hours, auctioneers kept the flow of the
sale moving. They had to catch all bids accurately, a challenge when there were a dozen
buyers with different styles of bidding. Even more complicated was keeping track of
“take-outs,” traditions for allowing successive purchases by the same buyers. Also vital was
maintaining good relationships with both buyers and farmers. The auctioneers fondly
remembered the old auction days. “A big circus atmosphere,” Stephenson recalled.
“You . . . had your whole family. . . . waiting to get your check to go to town to buy
your kids new clothes. . . . The peanutman was there and the lemonademan. And music!”
Durham had three sets of buyers attending sales at three different places simultaneously.
Opening day was so important that state officials and the media attended. Today the atmo-sphere
of the few surviving auctions is subdued. Long-standing family traditions of work-ing
in tobacco are disappearing.
Since 1972 the DHEHC has collected artifacts related to the state’s tobacco heritage.
The corporation has perhaps the country’s finest collection of tobacco manufacturing
equipment and one of the best assemblages of farming implements. Recent donors include
David May of Durham, who gave a large painting of a tobacco farm. More than fifty years
ago, artist Phil Brinkman depicted men working at a curing barn and grading bench with a
mule pulling a tobacco sled in the background. The painting will be displayed in the
museum’s auditorium. Bill Pope of Kernersville has donated a collection of more than fifty
different items of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company memorabilia accumulated by his late
sister, Etta Mae Pope, a longtime Reynolds employee. The collection ranges from a Joe
Camel coffee mug to a box of Apple Sun Cured plug tobacco. Tobacco Associates, Inc.,
of Washington, D.C., with a Raleigh office managed by Charlie King, offered another
unique donation—a large painting by Allen Montague of the five major stages of modern
tobacco processing: seedling production in the greenhouse, transplanting in the field,
mechanical harvesting, selling at the warehouse, and container shipping.
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 1 1
This large mural by Phil
Brinkman was recently
donated to Duke
Homestead by David
May and will be
displayed in the site’s
auditorium.
News from Historical Resources
Archives and Records Section
Staff of the Archives and Records Section assisted several local officials prior to the arrival of
Hurricane Isabel on September 18. Town clerks from Manteo, Atlantic Beach, and Pinetops
received disaster preparedness information in advance of the storm. On September 22, fol-lowing
Isabel’s departure from North Carolina, four members of the section lent their exper-tise
to officials in Swan Quarter, county seat of Hyde County, where the courthouse had
been flooded by three feet of water. In the register of deeds’ office, approximately twenty
three-ring binders, containing original marriage licenses, were disassembled and the individ-ual
documents laid flat to dry. Staff advised the register, the clerk of superior court, and the
tax administrator on methods for freeze-drying loose papers and bound volumes. The direc-tor
of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), John Kennedy, joined in discussions
with the clerk of superior court on the expedient and proper processes for saving late-nine-teenth-
century books. Michael J. Unruh, records officer for the AOC, also visited the court-house
and brought back to Raleigh forty-three boxes of original wills, special proceedings
case files, and civil and criminal case files that did not get wet. Those records were scheduled
for ultimate transfer to the Archives and will be re-boxed and inspected by the archival staff.
The North Carolina State Archives has posted several additional collections in its
Manuscript and Archives and Reference System (MARS) online catalog. The colonial
governors’ papers have been described to the item level, and digitized copies of the docu-ments
have been linked to each description. Also, approximately 150 early North Carolina
maps have been digitized and are likewise linked to their descriptions in MARS. These
items may be searched and viewed at http://www.ncarchives.dcr.state.nc.us.
The Friends of the Archives (FOA) sponsored two internships this fall. Christine
Granquist, a first-year student in the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) pro-gram
at UNC-Chapel Hill, indexed and scanned more than 1,200 snapshots from the Blue
Ridge Parkway Photograph Collection. In addition, Granquist created a complete finding
aid to the collection, which will link to the digitized photographs. She also scanned approxi-mately
two hundred documents from the colonial governors’ papers for presentation on the
Web. Anna Kempl, another student in the SILS program, began work on September 30 as
the T. Harry Gatton intern. She scanned representative samples from the H. S. Brimley
Photograph Collection and converted the Brimley finding aid to EAD.XML. Kempl also
encoded the Gertrude Weil Collection finding aid to EAD.XML. Both finding aids and
images should be available soon in the Archives online catalog.
On October 11, Jesse R. “Dick” Lankford presented a workshop at the North Carolina
Museum of History on “Preserving Your Family Photos.” A brief slide show and exam-ples
of historic types of photographs were shown to nearly fifty attendees. Lankford exam-ined
private photos and offered suggestions for their preservation and storage.
1 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Just three weeks after dealing with Hurricane Isabel, the Outer Banks History Center
(OBHC) hosted the fall meeting of the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) on
October 9-10. Assistant curator Sarah Downing served on the program committee and con-ducted
a workshop with Janis Holder, university archivist at UNC-Chapel Hill, titled “From
Memories to History: An Introduction to Oral History.” Curator KaeLi Spiers handled local
arrangements and moderated a panel discussion attended by representatives from the First
Flight Centennial Commission, the National Park Service (NPS), the First Flight Society,
the Wright Flight program, and Icarus International. Speakers included distinguished authors
David Stick, Kevin Duffus, and Dr. Patricia Click. Roanoke Island Festival Park and the
N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island waived fees for the use of their facilities by SNCA
attendees. Doug Stover provided an exclusive tour of the NPS museum storage facility.
Many participants also availed themselves of a behind-the-scenes tour of the OBHC. The
center’s support group, the OBHC Associates, helped underwrite an evening reception for
SNCA at the aquarium.
Recent Accessions by the North Carolina State Archives
During the months of September, October, and November 2003, the Archives and
Records Section made 219 accession entries. The Archives received security microfilm of
records for Alamance, Buncombe, Cabarrus, Catawba, Chatham, Cumberland, Durham,
Gates, Greene, Guilford, Henderson, Johnston, Jones, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg,
Montgomery, Moore, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Orange, Pamlico,
Pasquotank, Pender, Person, Pitt, Polk, Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Rutherford,
Sampson, Scotland, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Transylvania, Union, Wake, Watauga, Wayne,
Wilkes, Wilson, Yadkin, and Yancey Counties; and for the municipalities of Asheville,
Brevard, Clayton, Clemmons, Cleveland, Fletcher, High Point, Hillsborough, Kill Devil
Hills, Manteo, Mint Hill, Monroe, Morehead City, Nags Head, Oxford, Saint James,
Shallotte, Wake Forest, and Zebulon.
The section accessioned records from the following state agencies: Department of
Administration, 2 reels; Department of Insurance, 39 reels; Department of Transportation,
23 reels; Governor’s Office, 30.8 cubic feet; State Board of Education, 1 cubic foot; and
State Treasurer, 85 reels.
The William B. Grady Letters, the Joseph H. Hubbard Letter, the James A. May Letter,
the Houston Family Letters, the Hugh A. Crawford Letter, the Sarah J. C. Whittlesey Let-ters,
the Coltrane Family Papers, the Lott Family Papers, and the John M. Turner Letter
were accessioned as new private collections. Additions were made to the Samuel A. Ashe
Papers, the William Joslin Papers, the Slave Collection, and the Miscellaneous Papers. The
W. C. Perry Account Book and the ERA Transient Accounts were added to the collec-tion
of account books. Other records accessioned included 4 Bible Records; 2 volumes of
Cemetery Records; 5 volumes of Church Records; 67 audio- and 16 videotaped inter-views,
and 1,316 other items, added to the Military Collection; 1 issue added to the
Newspaper Collection; and 3 original prints and 5.5 cubic feet of
aerial photographs added to the Non-textual Materials Collection.
Historical Publications Section
A new booklet from the Office of Archives and History illustrates and
describes some of the largest and most significant commemorative
celebrations at the site of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. “By Dauntless Reso-lution
and Unconquerable Faith”: Selected Anniversary Celebrations at the Site
of the Wright Brothers’ First Flight, 1928-1978, by Stephen E. Massengill,
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 1 3
is illustrated with fourteen photographs taken at several of the celebrations held in North
Carolina during those years. The title derives from the inscription at the base of the Wright
Brothers National Memorial at Kill Devil Hills. The booklet is a reprint (1,000 copies) of an
article by the same title that appears in the October 2003 issue of the North Carolina Historical
Review (NCHR). The book (29 pages, paperback, illustrated, indexed) sells for $5.35 plus
$5.00 shipping. The October issue, which contains two additional articles, numerous book
reviews, and an index to Volume 80 of the NCHR (2003), sells for $8.00.
Plans are afoot to bring back into print all of the volumes in the North Carolina Troops,
1861-1865: A Roster series. Broadfoot Publishing Company, which assisted in printing
some of the earlier volumes, will be working with the section to complete this project.
The schedule calls for two volumes to be printed every other month beginning in Febru-ary,
so that all volumes will be available by February 2005. If you are interested in being
included on a publication notification list, please contact the section administrator by
e-mail at donna.kelly@ncmail.net, or by phone at (919) 733-7442.
The section’s new online store has been a roaring success. In the three months since its
inception in early September, nearly $3,000 in revenue has been received through the
website. Most of the section’s books, maps, and posters may now be purchased there, and
in the coming months every item in the inventory will be available. Also contributing to a
high level of receipts during this period, sales over the ten days of the North Carolina
State Fair totaled $16,897. Virtually every section staff member, in addition to Jo Ann
Williford of Archives and History administration and Jesse R. Lankford of the Archives
and Records Section, helped sell books at the fair.
Two reprints are now available from the section. Triumph at Kitty Hawk: The Wright
Brothers and Powered Flight, by Thomas C. Parramore, was reprinted (3,000 copies) in con-junction
with the centennial year of the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk. The book
(123 pages, paperback, illustrated, indexed) features a new cover. Greene and Cornwallis:
The Campaign in the Carolinas, out of print since 1987, is back in print (1,500 copies). It
describes the retreat of Nathanael Greene’s Southern Army before Lord Cornwallis’s Brit-ish
regulars, culminating in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The book (91 pages, paper-back,
illustrated, indexed) features a new index and a newly designed cover. Each book
sells for $10.70 plus $5.00 shipping.
All of these items may be ordered from the Historical Publications Section, Office of
Archives and History, 4622 Mail Service Center (CC), Raleigh, NC, 27699-4622. For
credit card (VISA and MasterCard) orders, visit the online store at http://store.yahoo.com/
nc-historical-publications/ or call (919) 733-7442. For walk-in purchases that may include
selected discounts, visit the office at 120 West Lane Street, Raleigh, weekdays from 8:30 A.M.
to 5:00 P.M.
State Historic Preservation Office
The Robert E. Stipe Professional Award was presented to F. Mitchener “Mitch” Wilds at
the annual Preservation North Carolina conference awards dinner in Greensboro on Sep-tember
12. The award is the highest tribute in the state to working professionals who
demonstrate outstanding commitment to historic preservation as part of their job responsi-bilities.
The annual prize honors Robert E. Stipe of Chapel Hill, director of the Division
of Archives and History in 1974-1975, educator in the field of historic preservation, and
mentor to a generation of preservation professionals in North Carolina.
The prestigious award recognizes the twenty-year impact of Mitch Wilds on the state’s
historic built environment. He has worked directly with the rehabilitation and restoration
of numerous significant state-owned properties, including the State Capitol, the Executive
1 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Mansion, the Chowan County Courthouse, and Old East and Old West at UNC-Chapel
Hill. He has provided technical assistance to an even longer list of historic properties
owned by local governments and non-profit organizations across the state, such as the
Thomas Day House in Milton, the Mordecai
House and the Joel Lane House in Raleigh,
City Hall in Statesville, and the Caswell County
Courthouse. Wilds has advised the owners or
developers of a number of income-producing
historic tax credit projects undergoing certified
rehabilitation, including the American Tobacco
Company Complex in Durham, the Atlantic
Bank and Trust Building in Burlington, and
Reidsville High School. He has also given tech-nical
assistance to hundreds of individuals in
North Carolina trying to preserve their historic
homes, especially since the introduction in 1998
of the tax credit program for non-income-producing
historic structures.
Wilds has been involved in various preserva-tion
education programs during his career with the State Historic Preservation Office. He
was instrumental in planning the curriculum for the graduate course, “Field Methods in
Preservation Technology,” offered each summer at Old Salem by UNC-Greensboro. As
part of the instruction, he shares his knowledge and experience with the students through
a series of superb slide lectures. Wilds also serves as vice-chairman of the Louisburg
Historic Preservation Commission.
News from State Historic Sites
Capitol Section
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens hosted a number of special activities this fall,
including MumFest in October, which featured free tours of the gardens ablaze with
thousands of chrysanthemums, and a citywide celebration with crafts, rides, games, and
entertainment in New Bern’s historic downtown. Other programs included several free
films, an armchair tour of Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, a guided African American His-toric
Downtown Walking Tour of New Bern, a lecture by Dr. Freddie Parker of North
Carolina Central University on runaway slaves in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century
New Bern, and the palace’s annual Jonkonnu event, a slave holiday tradition.
The Wake County Council of Veterans Organizations, Inc., hosted the twenty-second
annual Veterans Day Parade and Ceremony on November 11. More than thirty groups,
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Mitch Wilds (right) accepts the Robert E.
Stipe Professional Award from Sue Cone
(left), chairperson of the board of directors of
Preservation North Carolina, and Congress-man
Brad Miller (center).
including the Helping Hands Mission, youth scout organizations, and veterans of World
War II, participated in the parade through downtown Raleigh. The termination of the
march at the Veterans Memorial on Capitol Square coincided with a flyover by the U.S.
Air Force. Retired brigadier general Gary Pendleton, the keynote speaker, briefly
addressed the crowd. After the ceremony, the W. G. Enloe High School Band provided a
concert of patriotic airs and jazz numbers. The State Capitol, repairs to its water-damaged
dome completed and the scaffolding removed, was open for public tours in the afternoon.
The Capital Area Visitor Center (CAVC) in Raleigh is now showing a new twelve-minute
orientation film produced by division videographer Cheyney Hales. The new
product is on DVD format and replaces an aged slide show and equipment. Hales wrote
the script, which Nancy Mansfield of Tryon Palace reviewed, and did most of the video
work, with assistance from Jim Willard. Visuals borrowed from previous productions
saved a great amount of money. Other expenses were met with a grant that Pat Brock of
the CAVC secured from Sprint. The film, “Raleigh, Tar Heel Capital,” opens with a brief
but enticing mention of the twenty-seven state historic sites around North Carolina and
moves quickly to Native American encounters with European settlers. Sketching the set-tlement
and development of the colony, the production then focuses on the founding of
Raleigh; the 1831 fire that destroyed the statehouse; the building and contents of the cur-rent
historic State Capitol; and other historical attractions of the city. The Executive Man-sion
and major state museums receive attention in the film as well, with views of the
seldom-seen private quarters in the mansion.
The CAVC also now has a toll-free line catering to the many school and other groups
assisted by visitor center staff. Appropriately, the number is 1-866-SCH-TOUR
(724-8687).
The inaugural State Capitol Society Ball was held on December 6, under the $40,000
marquee sponsorship of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and support from
other friends. Proceeds from the fund-raising event will benefit educational and preserva-tion
programs at the 1840 State Capitol, a National Historic Landmark and state historic
site. Christmas decorations by the Raleigh Garden Club, a dinner buffet with regional cui-sine
from the coast to the mountains, and a silent auction were featured at the ball. Leon
Jordan’s Continentals provided swing music in tents on Capitol Square.
North Carolina Transportation Museum
The museum is pleased to announce receipt of $85,000 of federal TEA-21 (Transportation
Equity Act for the 21st Century) enhancement funds for the repair and restoration of
steam locomotive No. 604. The N.C. Department of Transportation provided the money.
The museum now has a total of $110,000 for the project.
The always popular Thomas the Tank Engine reappeared at the museum in October
for the annual fall program, A Day Out with Thomas. The event included train rides behind
Thomas as well as music, storytelling, videos, temporary tattoos, Sir Topham Hatt, and other
activities. Thomas the Tank Engine originated in Britain in 1945 when the Reverend
Wilbert Audry introduced the character in the first of a series of children’s books.
The Santa Train returned to the museum for three special weekends in December.
During his visit, Santa rode the train with families and handed out oranges and candy, an
old Southern Railway tradition. On the train, children made special holiday ornaments to
take home, listened to a reading of the family classic The Polar Express, and had pictures
taken with Santa.
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Northeastern Historic Sites Section
WNET 13 of New York, an award-winning Public Broadcasting System television sta-tion,
recently taped several segments in Edenton for a documentary on slavery that is cur-rently
in production. The four-part series presents slavery from the perspective of the
enslaved population based on slave narratives and recent research. A number of Edenton
residents took part in the filming. Henry Pillow, retired minister and part-time interpreter
at Historic Edenton, effortlessly adopted the role of an Episcopal priest. The circa 1825
Chowan County jail, where slaves were imprisoned in 1831 following the Nat Turner
Rebellion, was one of the historic buildings pictured in the film. Students from the Col-lege
of the Albemarle acted as slaves and jailers. Harriet Jacobs’s struggle for freedom is
depicted in the series. Born a slave in 1813 in Edenton, she escaped at the age of twenty-nine
and later published her story, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. A middle-school stu-dent
portrayed Jacobs during her early years in Edenton. St. Paul’s Church, where free
blacks and slaves, including Jacobs’s family, attended services, was also featured in the
documentary.
Piedmont Historic Sites Section
Descendants of Quaker John Allen III (1749-1826) recently reunited in Snow Camp to
dedicate a private highway historical marker at the original site of the circa 1780 John
Allen House, along what is now the Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road near Cane Creek. The
Allen House, one of the finest surviving eighteenth-century frontier log dwellings in
North Carolina, is an integral part of the interpretation at Alamance Battleground, to
which it was relocated in 1965. Restored and opened to the public in 1967, the structure
is used to explain domestic life around the time of the Regulator movement and the
American Revolution. The home consists of one principal room, an enclosed loft, a cellar,
and two sheds. When the family donated the house to the state, they also included period
family furnishings that remain inside the structure. John Allen and his wife, Rachel, raised
twelve children in the log dwelling. With his Quaker background, Allen would have no
involvement in either the Regulator movement or the Battle of Alamance. It is important,
however, to note the family’s connection with Herman Husband, prominent Regulator
leader, who married Allen’s sister, Amy.
A total of 1,263 students from eleven North Carolina counties participated in Alamance
Battleground’s twenty-third annual Colonial Living Week in October. The event gave the
young people a true feel and taste of the eighteenth century. Interpreters demonstrated vari-ous
aspects of colonial life, such as the preparation of food over an open fire, different types
of available lighting (candles, Betty lamps, and rush lights), living in a log home, and the pro-cess
of making apple cider. The operating cider press provided hands-on opportunities,
which included sampling the final product, freshly squeezed apple juice. A colonial surveyor
and blacksmith discussed and performed their skilled trades. Soldiers talked about life in the
colonial militia and demonstrated a musket and a three-pounder cannon. Interpreters intro-duced
students to all kinds of toys of early origin, such as the cup and ball and the whirligig.
African American educator Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown’s famous etiquette book, The
Correct Thing To Do, To Say, To Wear, first published in 1941, is available again in paper-back
from the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum. Decades ago, Brown’s Palmer Memo-rial
Institute students used The Correct Thing as their behavior and manners handbook.
With a foreword by Brown’s nieces, the 142-page paperback edition sells for $16.95 plus
tax at the museum. Brown believed that correct behavior was not an issue of skin color,
but of right and wrong. At a time when codes of conduct were stricter than they are
today, she sought to produce graduates whose education and manners would enable them
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 1 7
to surmount existing racial barriers. The Marion Stedman Covington Foundation of
Greensboro funded the reprinting.
An evocative free exhibit of photos of Palmer Memorial Institute students in the late
1940s by groundbreaking African American photographer Griffith Davis was on display at
Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies in Durham through January 10. Born
on the Morehouse College campus in Atlanta, Griffith Davis (1923-1993) discovered pho-tography
in high school. After service in World War II, he earned a degree at Morehouse
in 1947. Davis then became Ebony magazine’s first roving editor. His initial major assign-ment
was a photo essay on Palmer Memorial Institute. The photos Davis snapped
appeared in an October 1947 Ebony feature on Palmer and its founder, which helped
make both famous. Many photos taken for this story were part of the Duke exhibit. The
photos ranged from boys and girls bidding each other good night in front of the girls’
dorm to a table of students singing grace before sitting down to lunch.
After taking the Palmer photos, Davis attended Columbia University’s graduate journal-ism
school—the only African American in his class—and graduated in 1949. He became a
photojournalist, with assignments in Africa, Europe, and the U.S. His photos and writings
appeared in the New York Times, Der Speigel, Ebony, Fortune, Modern Photography, Negro
Digest, and Time. From 1952 until his retirement in 1985, Davis was in the U.S. Foreign
Service, often stationed in Africa. Today Duke University has Davis’s papers and
photographs in its library.
On December 14 the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum celebrated a Christmas open
house in Stouffer Hall on campus. Students from nearby Sedalia Elementary School deco-rated
the museum’s outside Christmas tree and areas inside the hall. Dr. Brown’s campus
home, Canary Cottage, was decorated as it would have been in the 1940s. The afternoon
music program included choirs from four local churches and a professional flutist, Kelly
Wainscott of Gibsonville.
Town Creek Indian Mound hosted two disparate groups of guests in October. The
North Carolina Archaeological Society met there on October 4. The program included an
outdoor presentation of ground-penetrating radar applications in archaeology by Dr. Kent
Schneider of the U.S. Forest Service. On October 8, nearly eleven hundred cyclists repre-senting
forty-three states and three countries arrived at the site, a designated rest stop on a
weeklong bike ride from Boone to Oak Island.
Roanoke Island Festival Park
Roanoke Island Festival Park (RIFP), despite damage from Hurricane Isabel, offered its
full array of scheduled special performances for the fall. Painter Paul Belote of Virginia,
using a variety of medias and impressions, held his art show, Mystery and Grace, at the park
during September and October. Belote is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth Univer-sity
and a former advertising art director. His work has been exhibited at the Chrysler
Museum of Art and the Peninsula Fine Arts Center.
The Carolista Music Festival was held on October 12 with local and nationally known
women performers celebrating the achievements of women of the Outer Banks, particu-larly
Carolista Baum. In the summer of 1973 Baum and her husband awoke to the unusual
sound of heavy equipment coming from the direction of the big sand dune now known as
Jockey’s Ridge State Park. They went out to investigate. According to local tradition,
Carolista marched up to the bulldozer, planted herself in its path, and refused to move
until the machine was shut down. Later she convinced the N.C. Parks and Recreation
Council to endorse Jockey’s Ridge for a state park. Artists at the festival included blues
musician Rosie Ledet, Julie Clark, who appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, and jazz
performer Laura Martier from the Outer Banks.
1 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Mojo Collins, another well-known Outer Banks artist, appeared at RIFP on October 2
to benefit Icarus International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the celebration of
the history, beauty, and mystery of flight through art. His compact disk, Flights of Magic,
features songs about the first flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Collins has been per-forming
for over five decades. In November, Elizabethan Tymes: A Country Faire
returned to the park. Participants stepped back four hundred years to the Renaissance for a
variety of entertainments. Children dressed in Elizabethan garb, made family coats of arms,
and learned period dances. Other activities included fencing demonstrations, historic
weapons firing, Renaissance music, a pike drill, and a ship battle.
The twentieth anniversary of the Elizabeth II was cele-brated
on November 22 at its birthplace, with a daylong
birthday party that offered cake, balloons, and free
admission. The vessel, an authentic reconstruction of one
of the seven ships of Sir Walter Raleigh’s 1585 expedition
to the New World, was constructed on the Manteo water-front
to commemorate America’s 400th anniversary. It was
christened by First Lady Carolyn Hunt and launched on
November 22, 1983. Barbara Hird, reprising her familiar
role as Queen Elizabeth I, welcomed visitors to the birth-day
festivities. Lisbeth C. Evans, secretary of the Depart-ment
of Cultural Resources, was guest speaker for the
occasion. The captain of the Elizabeth II, Horace Whitfield,
presented a history of the vessel, and the Reverend Charles
E. B. Gill, rector of Saint Andrews By the Sea Episcopal
Church, blessed the ship. Visitors were entertained with
period dance lessons, music by Bob Zentz, a historic flag
display, an exhibit explaining the construction of the ves-sel,
and interpreters demonstrating maritime activities.
Southeastern Historic Sites Section
The CSS Neuse in Kinston hosted its annual Civil War living history program in Novem-ber,
with approximately eighty-five reenactors taking part. An estimated 435 visitors wit-nessed
a number of different activities including rope making, blacksmithing, a period
medical display, artillery demonstrations, and infantry drills. Confederate navy and Marine
Corps reenactors were also on hand, explaining the role of the two service branches in the
Civil War. They taught visitors about shipboard life, uniforms and weapons, navigation,
and various other aspects of the naval service. There was also a sutler, an exhibit about the
common North Carolina soldier, and five working reproduction artillery pieces on dis-play.
The following reenactment/living history groups participated in the event: North
Carolina Naval Squadron; Tidewater Maritime
Living History Association; Company E, C.S.
Marine Corps; C.S. Marines (Wilmington);
Reilly’s Battery; Edenton Bell Battery; Ellis’s Bat-tery;
Company F, 7th North Carolina; 51st North
Carolina; Old South Blacksmiths; and the Smith-field
Seamstress.
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The Guild of St. Andrews of
North Carolina, frequent
participants in special events at
Roanoke Island Festival Park,
provided educational
entertainment at the Elizabethan
Tymes Fair in November.
The crew of the North Carolina Naval Squadron, a
reenactment group based in Roper, participated in the
annual Civil War living history program at the CSS Neuse.
USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial
Author James Bradley signed copies of his explosive new book, Flyboys, in the battleship
visitor center on November 14. The event, part of a thirty-city national tour, was spon-sored
locally by Bristol Books, Time Warner Cable, and the USS North Carolina Battleship
Memorial. Bradley’s remarks were punctuated with excerpts from a recent Cable News
Network documentary about the events chronicled in the book. Flyboys reveals the long-buried
story of nine U.S. pilots who were shot down while bombing Japanese communi-cations
towers on Chichi Jima, an island near Iwo Jima. One of the nine, twenty-year-old
George H. W. Bush, was rescued from the waters of the Pacific by the crew of the subma-rine
Finback. The other eight airmen were held in captivity on Chichi Jima and ultimately
beheaded and cannibalized. Both the American and Japanese governments suppressed the
shocking story and the post-war trial of fifteen Japanese held accountable for the atrocity.
Bradley is the author of the best-selling Flags of Our Fathers, the study of the six marines
immortalized in Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the flag raising on
Iwo Jima. Bradley’s father was among the six.
Western Historic Sites Section
At Vance Birthplace, award-winning southern author Sharyn McCrumb recently read from
the newest novel in her popular Appalachian Ballad series, Ghost Riders, a story of the Civil
War in western North Carolina. In Ghost Riders, as in McCrumb’s other Ballad novels, the
narrative interweaves present-day characters and historical narrators, often with a strong
thread of the supernatural and magic realism. Ghost Riders contrasts lingering Civil War leg-ends
of Appalachia with the lives of current residents. McCrumb celebrates her ancestors and
the mountain land, crafting a story rich with the tradition and spirit of the region. The
novel’s primary narrators are the historic figures Malinda Blalock and Zebulon Vance. Blalock,
a young woman whose husband was forced into the Confederate army, disguised herself as a
boy and went with him. In the novel’s past, the couple eventually become outlaws who
avenge the deaths of their kinfolk at the hands of rebels. In the novel’s present, the war is a
half-remembered nightmare that lingers in the Confederate flag flying in the yard of a trailer,
church names such as Union Baptist, and reenactors who relive the war. Ghost Riders tells of
a war that turned neighbors into enemies and left survivors bitter for decades. McCrumb’s
novels celebrating the history and folklore of Appalachia have received scholarly acclaim and
ranking on the New York Times best-seller lists. “My books are like Appalachian quilts,” says
McCrumb. “I take brightly colored scraps of legends,
ballads, fragments of rural life, and local tragedy, and I
piece them together into a complex whole that tells
not only a story, but also a deeper truth about the
culture of the mountain South.” She has written six-teen
books.
In October hundreds of visitors enjoyed a day of
old-fashioned fun and music at the thirteenth annual
Cornshucking Frolic at Horne Creek Living Histori-cal
Farm. The frolic featured corn shucking, shelling,
and grinding, as these tasks were performed at the
2 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Lisa Turney (right), site manager at Horne Creek Living
Historical Farm, demonstrates a corn sheller to a young
visitor at the annual Cornshucking Frolic.
turn of the twentieth century. Visitors also enjoyed period blacksmithing, quilting, natural
dyeing, tobacco curing, woodworking, chair caning, basket making, children’s games, apple
butter and cider making, wagon rides, and a country store. More than a dozen musical
groups performed throughout the day. Guests also toured the Southern Heritage Apple
Orchard with Lee Calhoun, orchardist. The frolic’s popular cuisine was country cooking,
like homemade chicken stew, pinto beans, roasted corn, cornbread, pies, and various bev-erages.
Almost a hundred volunteers helped at the event. “Cornshuckings” or “huskings”
were an annual harvest-time tradition from colonial days through the mid-twentieth
century. Neighbors and friends shared the work of shucking and separating ears of corn,
as well as good food, courting, gossip, tall tales, and fiddle tunes.
News from State History Museums
Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex
With limited display space, changing exhibits, and a growing collection, not all of a
museum’s artifacts are always on view. The fragile condition of some objects requires that
they be stored rather than exhibited. But the museum staff occasionally has the opportunity
to bring out certain artifacts from storage for the public to see and appreciate. The Museum
of the Cape Fear does just that in the exhibit Treasures From Our Attic, opening March 13.
The exhibit team combed collections storage areas and perused artifact records to
choose objects for this exhibit. From this search, the team selected such items as a sabre
bayonet manufactured at the Fayetteville Arsenal during the Civil War, a model railroad
locomotive built in the 1930s, women’s dresses, World War II uniforms, beds, chairs,
dressers, and trunks.
Treasures From Our Attic involves more than displaying seldom-seen artifacts. Informa-tive
panels address the purposes of museums, collection goals and policies, artifact preser-vation,
and other issues. The exhibit will run through August 14.
North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort
Construction has begun at the museum’s Watercraft Center on a unique vessel that once
populated the North Carolina coastal waters. The periauger, or pirogue, a two-masted
dugout made from a split cypress log, was the common workboat of the sounds and rivers
in the eighteenth century. No physical evidence of the boat has been found, but research
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 2 1
Model of a periauger constructed by Jim
Brode, volunteer at the North Carolina
Maritime Museum. A full-scale replica of
the eighteenth-century workboat is being
built this winter at the museum’s Watercraft
Center.
of contemporary descriptions and illustrations conducted by Michael Alford, former cura-tor
of maritime research at the museum and author of Traditional Workboats of North
Carolina, has informed the design of a reconstructed periauger. The project is a joint effort
of the Maritime Museum, the Perquimans County Restoration Association, and the Pro-gram
in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University (ECU). The vessel will be con-structed
at the Watercraft Center by volunteers and ECU students, while the oars, sails,
and other equipment will be made in Hertford.
The periauger will be thirty feet long, with masts twenty-five feet tall and rowing sta-tions
for ten oars. When completed in April 2004, the boat will be moved to the 1730
Newbold-White House in Hertford, where it will become the centerpiece of the
Perquimans County Restoration Association’s maritime heritage program. The association
anticipates that the vessel will provide a dynamic living history experience, visiting port
towns in the Albemarle Sound region. The public is invited to Beaufort to view the work
in progress, which will provide the museum staff valuable information about boatbuilding
methods of the early eighteenth century.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel, the staff of the Maritime Museum initiated a cam-paign
to educate the public about emergency procedures for the recovery of personal cul-tural
materials, such as letters, diaries, photographs, and books. The museum utilized news
releases to local media and radio interviews to disseminate their vital message. Unknown
to the museum staff, a similar program had already been planned by the National Park Ser-vice
(NPS) at Cape Lookout National Seashore, in conjunction with the Core Sound
Waterfowl Museum. Someone involved in the NPS project heard one of the radio inter-views
and invited the Maritime Museum to partner in their hurricane recovery venture. In
a remarkable interagency cooperative effort, the NPS provided recovery materials and
paper and furniture experts from its conservation lab in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; the
Core Sound museum donated its facilities and personnel; the Maritime Museum offered
personnel and a van; and North Carolina State University provided freezer space for the
conservation of water-damaged books. On October 1-2, representatives from the partner-ing
agencies were on hand at the Waterfowl Museum to evaluate damaged paper artifacts
and to offer recommendations for their recovery.
North Carolina Museum of History
The museum hosted the eighth annual American Indian Heritage Celebration on Novem-ber
22. Festivities included native music, traditional dances, storytelling, hands-on activi-ties,
and craft demonstrations, such as pottery making, basket weaving, bead working, and
stone carving. The celebration also showcased a new exhibit, Community and Culture:
North Carolina Indians Past and Present, which opened on October 28. The case exhibit
explores how Indians have maintained their traditions through pottery making, the game
of stickball, and corn growing. The display features pottery thrown by Senora Lynch of
the Haliwa-Saponi tribe and the late Louise Bigmeat Maney of the Eastern Band of Cher-okee
Indians, Cherokee stickball sticks collected more than a century ago, and historical
agricultural photographs.
The Southeastern Museums Conference announced that the exhibit Man-Made Marvels
won an award in the Curator’s Committee Exhibition Competition in the $25,000-
$100,000 budget category. The museum also received a $5,000 grant from American
Express to underwrite the Third Annual African American Cultural Celebration on Janu-ary
31. The event’s activities, crafts, music, entertainment, and foods reflect North
Carolina’s rich African American heritage and culture.
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The Museum of History is a member of the North Carolina Craft Coalition, which is
sponsoring the “Celebration of North Carolina Craft,” a two-year statewide commemora-tion
of Tar Heel craft traditions, artisans, and products. Proclaimed by Gov. Michael F.
Easley, the celebration will include craft organization anniversaries, grand openings, special
exhibits, and other activities throughout 2004-2005. The North Carolina Craft Coalition,
with the support of the North Carolina Arts Council, is made up of nineteen craft organi-zations
united to promote the state as a cultural tourism destination. As part of this effort,
the coalition hosts a website, www.discovercraftnc.org, designed to connect prospective tour-ists
with specific information about coalition members.
Lyl MacLean Clinard of High Point, president of the North Carolina Museum of His-tory
Associates, announced the establishment of the Associates’ first endowment for the
museum. The endowment is made possible through a generous $200,000 pledge from
longtime members Nancy and George Lyles, and their daughters, Nan Kester and Lee
Webster, all of High Point. Annual interest from the endowment will fund important pro-jects,
programs, and artifact purchases at the Museum of History. A first-floor exhibit gal-lery
will be named in honor of the Lyles family. Nancy Lyles was president of the
Museum Associates from 1988 to 1989. Her daughters have served as state membership
chairs and continue to provide strong support. The Museum Associates, with more than
12,000 members across the state, furnish invaluable assistance to the Museum of History in
Raleigh and its six regional museums. The organization also supports local museums,
historic sites, and schools across the state.
Staff Notes
David L. S. Brook, administrator of the State Historic Preservation Office, has been
named acting director of the Division of Historical Resources. He succeeds David Olson,
recently promoted to Deputy Secretary of Arts and Libraries. Brook has been with
Archives and History since 1984. He is the author of A Lasting Gift of Heritage: A History of
the North Carolina Society for the Preservation of Antiquities, 1939-1974, published by the
agency in 1997.
In the Division of State Historic Sites, Louise Huston retired in October as site manager
at Fort Dobbs, a position she had held since 1987. She was first employed at the site in
1977 as a grounds maintenance person. In recent years, she has been the sole staff member
at Fort Dobbs because of budget cuts. Jonathan Matthews has resigned as interpreter I at
House in the Horseshoe, and Tammy Medlin as interpreter II at Aycock Birthplace.
At Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens, Lisa J.Wimpfheimer has been hired as horticul-turist
and head of the Gardens Services Branch. Timothy A. Minch is the new greenhouse
manager and Judith H. Bailie the new fund-raising assistant. Linda Stancill retired as green-house
manager/floral designer. Carl Herko resigned as communications and marketing
manager, and Simon Spalding as research historian and character interpreter. Nyal Craig
Flowers separated as a painter and was succeeded by Lynn A. Ford. Julie Bledsoe has relo-cated
from the North Carolina Transportation Museum to Tryon Palace, where she will
assist the curator of collections while also serving as curator for the northeast region.
Lynn Flora joined the administrative staff of the Office of Archives and History as an
office assistant IV, succeeding Tracy Brown, who transferred to the Division of Motor
Vehicles. LeRae Umfleet has been hired as a research historian in the Research Branch.
After more than fourteen years with the Archives and Records Section, David Mitchell,
assistant state records administrator and head of the Government Records Branch, resigned
on November 1 to accept the position of university records manager at Duke University.
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Mitchell will work closely with the university archivist and the director of the Duke Med-ical
Center Archives to assist campus offices with the implementation and administration
of a records management program. Ashley Yandle, an archivist with the now defunct
records description unit of the Government Records Branch, became the information
management archivist in the Information Technology Branch. Her new responsibilities
include maintenance of the section website and the MARS database, and the publication
of finding aids on the Web in XML format.
Camille Hunt has joined the staff of the North Carolina Museum of History as a
museum registrar. Sheila Thomas-Ambat, multimedia producer, has resigned. Ann Kaplan
has assumed the position of outreach branch supervisor in the Education Section.
2 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Upcoming Events
January 14 North Carolina Museum of History: History à la Carte: Tiny Broadwick:
The First Lady of Parachuting. Author Elizabeth Whitley Roberson offers
insights into the adventurous life of Granville County native Georgia Ann
“Tiny” Broadwick, the first woman to jump from an aircraft. 12:10 to 1:00 P.M.
January 23 North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort: Microbes: Canaries of the
Sea. Dr. Hans Paerl, Kenan Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences
at UNC-Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences at Morehead City, discusses
the microscopic indicators of water quality in estuaries. 3:00 P.M.
January 30 Mountain Gateway Museum: Light in the Tunnel: The Building of the
Western North Carolina Railroad. Opening of an exhibit that focuses on the
dramatic construction of the legendary railroad in the late 1800s, during
which convict labor blasted nine tunnels through Old Fort Mountain.
January 31 North Carolina Museum of History: Family Day: African American
Cultural Celebration. Popular annual event returns for a third year with a
menu of foods, crafts, entertainment, music, and hands-on activities to celebrate
North Carolina���s African American heritage and culture. 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
February 1 Roanoke Island Festival Park: Window on the World: Photography by Jim
Lee. Opening reception for an exhibit of photographs by Jim Lee of Nags
Head, featuring scenes from his travels to Australia, Fiji, Cuba, and Mexico.
Exhibit will run in the park art gallery through February 24. 4:00 to 6:00 P.M.
February 7 Museum of the Albemarle: Civil War Naval Living History. Program
features demonstrations and displays of artillery, navigation, shipbuilding, and
medicine, lectures about the war in northeastern North Carolina, and
weapons drills. 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. on the museum green.
North Carolina Museum of History: North Carolina Slave Narratives: The
Lives of Moses Roper, Lunsford Lane, Moses Grandy, and Thomas H. Jones.
Editor William L. Andrews discusses his compilation of four autobiographies,
which exemplified the struggles of slaves and helped strengthen the
abolitionist movement. A book signing follows the program. 3:00 P.M.
Roanoke Island Festival Park: North Carolina School of the Arts
Student Film Festival. Fourth annual festival presenting the school’s most
acclaimed and award-winning student productions. 7:30 P.M.
February 11 North Carolina Museum of History: History à la Carte: Serving in a
Segregated Army. Fred Farmer, retired army aviator and paratrooper, shares
his experiences in the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, an all-African
American unit, and as a pilot in the army. 12:10 to 1:00 P.M.
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Upcoming Events
February 14 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: Garden Lecture: Landscape
Pruning: The Why, When, and Wherefore. Dr. Tom Glasgow,
Craven County Cooperative Extension director and a certified arborist,
will discuss the importance of correctly pruning trees and shrubs. 10:00 A.M.
in the visitor center auditorium. $4 admission fee.
February 14-15 Roanoke Island Festival Park: A Civil War Living History Weekend.
Two-day commemoration of the 142nd anniversary of the Battle of
Roanoke Island, including reenactors of soldiers and sailors, artillery
demonstrations, a recruiting station, and mid-nineteenth-century trades.
Saturday, 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., and Sunday, 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.
February 26 Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex: Arsenal Roundtable:
Red, White, Blue, and Black: A History of Black Americans in
the Military. Professor Charles Anderson Jr. discusses the contributions of
African American soldiers and units in the American armed forces. 7:00 P.M.
February 28 North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort: Family Day: Sailors’ Arts
and Skills. Features scrimshaw collection of Scudday Sullivan of Edenton,
which also includes whale teeth and baleen carved into utilitarian objects.
11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: Scouting Out Tryon Palace. A
fun-filled day especially for Girl Scouts, featuring tours of the palace and
three historic houses, take-home projects, colonial games, and hands-on
activities. 9:00 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. $8 admission fee for scouts, $12 for adults.
Reservations and prepayment required. Scout leaders should call the Coastal
Carolina Girl Scout Council at (800) 558-9297, ext. 118, by February 13.
March 7 Roanoke Island Festival Park: Seventh Annual Priceless Pieces Past
and Present Quilt Extravaganza. Opening reception for the popular
quilt show, organized by the Teacup Quilters and displaying old and new
quilts made by or belonging to Dare County residents. 2:00 to 4:00 P.M.
Demonstrations and activities are scheduled throughout March, including a
lecture and slide show by Louise Benner, assistant curator at the North
Carolina Museum of History, on March 11. Call (252) 475-1500 for
additional information.
March 10 North Carolina Museum of History: History à la Carte: Women
Soldiers in the Civil War. Lauren Cook Wike, co-author of They Fought
Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War, explains why more
than 250 women, North and South, left the home front for the battlefield.
12:10 to 1:00 P.M.
March 13 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: Garden Lecture: Organic
Gardening. Palace horticulturalist Lisa J.Wimpfheimer shares methods of
gardening without chemicals, addressing the basics of building soil and
managing pests. 10:00 A.M. in the visitor center auditorium. $4 admission fee.
March 14 North Carolina Museum of History: An Teach Ciuin (The Quiet
House). This traditional Irish house party features tunes played in pubs
across rural Ireland. Co-sponsored by PineCone. 3:00 to 4:00 P.M.
March 17-21 North Carolina Museum of History: Artist at Work: Dave Wofford.
Bookmaker Wofford demonstrates time-honored tools and techniques for
stitching together a book. 1:00 to 3:00 P.M.
March 18 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: Lecture: Free Black Slave-holders
in North Carolina. Dr. Darin J. Waters discusses slaveholding
among free blacks, particularly in North Carolina. Cosponsored by the
James City Historical Society. 7:00 P.M.
Colleges and Universities
Barton College
Dr. William Jerry MacLean retired from the Department of History and Social Sciences in
May. Oscar Jefferson Broadwater has been named associate professor of history.
Duke University
The Duke University Center for the Study of Medical Ethics and Humanities will host a
conference on April 23-25 that will examine the relationships between poetry and
medicine. Vital Lines, Vital Signs will explore the uses of poetry in the practice of medicine,
the influence of medical themes in poetry in different times and cultures, and the theoretical
and philosophical connections between the disciplines. A number of internationally renowned
authors, poets, and medical professionals, including Rafael Campo, Lucille Clifton, Jack
Coulehan, Mark Doty, Li-Young Lee, Kathryn Montgomery, Sharon Olds, Suzanne Poirier,
Reynolds Price, Alan Shapiro, and John Stone, are scheduled to participate. For further
information, visit the conference website, http://PoetryandMedicineConference.mc.duke.edu,
or call Megan Davidson at the center, (919) 668-9007.
Mount Olive College
On October 4, Dr. Alan K. Lamm presented a paper titled, “Perfect in Combat: General
John A. Logan, 1826-1886,” at the 38th annual Northern Great Plains History Confer-ence
in Fargo, North Dakota.
2 6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Upcoming Events
March 21 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: African American Historic
Downtown Walking Tour. This popular tour of sixteen blocks of
historic New Bern returns with the advent of spring. Learn about three
hundred years of African American history in this ninety-minute walking
tour. 2:00 P.M. $4 admission fee.
March 21-23 Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens: 36th Annual Tryon Palace
Decorative Arts Symposium. This year’s symposium focuses upon the
theme of North Carolina arts and crafts. Lectures, tours, and social events
are being planned in cooperation with the East Carolina University
Division of Continuing Studies.
March 27 Reed Gold Mine: 25th Annual Gold Rush Run. Events include a half
marathon, an 8K run, a mile fun run, and a competitive walk. Pre-registration
by runners is recommended. 8:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Fee for
participants.
March 28 Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex: Historical Entertainment.
Seasonal celebration of traditional family entertainment in the Victorian era
features craft booths demonstrating construction of miniature maypoles, paper
dolls, valentine cornucopias, and maple leaf crowns. 1:00 to 5:00 P.M.
April 24 Mountain Gateway Museum: Pioneer Day. Twentieth annual event that
features food, craft demonstrations, handcrafted items, and traditional music,
including the bluegrass band, Strings of Five. 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
April 27-28 Reed Gold Mine: Heritage Days. Area fourth graders and their teachers
learn about North Carolina history and natural resources through craft
demonstrations, studies of past life-styles, and tours of the underground
facilities. 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. Fee for panning. Group reservations for
panning and tours required. Call Susan Smith at (704) 721-4653 for
reservations.
Wake Forest University
Two members of the history department presented papers at the Southern Historical Asso-ciation
meeting at Houston in November. J. Howell Smith spoke on “Honorable Beggars:
The History of Philanthropy and Fund Raising,” and Michele K. Gillespie addressed the
topic, “Defining Slavery and Freedom in the Early National South: Runaway White
Apprentices in their Own Defense.” Two other professors gave presentations in October.
William Connell lectured on “It was a Miracle They Did Not Kill Me: Race, Violence,
and Legitimacy in Seventeenth-Century Mexico City” to the Reunión de Historiadores
Mexicanos, Estadounidenses y Canadienses at Monterrey on October 4. Simone M. Caron
addressed the New England Historical Association meeting at Providence, Rhode Island
on October 24. Her paper was titled, “Mothers, Doctors, and Neonaticide in Rhode
Island, 1874-1938.”
Two other members of the department had books published in 2003. Sarah Watts’
Rough Rider in the White House: Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Desire was published by
the University of Chicago Press, while UNC Press published Foul Means: The Formation of
a Slave Society in Virginia, 1660-1740 by Anthony S. Parent Jr. The classic four-volume
history of Wake Forest College by George W. Paschal and Bynum Shaw is now available
on compact disk, with a new introduction by J. Edwin Hendricks.
State, County, and Local Groups
Cape Fear Museum
The science and technology behind everyday devices was the focus of a touring exhibit
that opened at the museum on October 1. How Things Work, inspired by the book of the
same title by eminent physicist Dr. H. Richard Crane, featured the inner works of twenty-one
interactive gadgets, including a lock, a light switch, and a traffic signal. The exhibit
focused on six primary technological areas—the bimetallic strip, gears and pulleys, locks
and brakes, electric generators and motors, the use of electricity, and the generation and
control of sound. How Things Work was developed by the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
with major funding from the National Science Foundation. The touring exhibition is
managed by the Association of Science-Technology Centers, Inc., and sponsored locally
by GE Nuclear Energy, WECT, Cumulus Broadcasting, and New Hanover County.
Caswell County Historical Association
Tom Magnuson, founder and director of the Trading Path Preservation Association, was
the featured speaker at the October 14 meeting of the historical association. He presented
an update on discoveries, both environmental and in the written record, since he last
addressed the group in 1999, concerning the divergent routes of the Native American
trading path as it coursed through Caswell County.
Chapel Hill Historical Society
The society continues to feature prominent area historians in its monthly programs. On
October 19, noted historian and documentary filmmaker Dr. William R. Ferris captivated
a full house with a lively and humorous lecture on “Memory and Sense of Place in the
American South.” The discussion emphasized the importance of music, particularly Missis-sippi
Delta blues, in southern culture. Dr. Ferris musically illustrated his remarks with solo
vocal and guitar performances of blues, rock and roll, and country music. Dr. Ferris is the
Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of History at UNC-Chapel Hill, senior
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 2 7
associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South, former chairman of
the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a fellow of the American Folklore
Society.
Dr. Harry L. Watson addressed the society on November 16 with an overview of
Orange County history. Dr. Watson has been a professor of history at UNC-Chapel Hill
since 1976 and is the director of the Center for the Study of the American South. He spe-cializes
in the antebellum South, the Jacksonian era, and North Carolina history.
Lower Cape Fear Historical Society
The society recently announced the online availability of more than 1,200 historic photo-graphs
from its archival collection. The photographs date from 1850 and depict a variety
of topics of local interest. The society plans to digitize and mount additional photographs
from its collection, as well as others as they are donated. The images may be viewed at
www.latimerhouse.org/collections/photos.php.
Murfreesboro Historical Association
On September 25, the association celebrated the successful conclusion of its ambitious
campaign to provide designated endowment funds for its historic properties, with a cock-tail
buffet at the Hertford Academy. A total of $200,000 was pledged to establish individ-ual
endowments for the continued maintenance, protection, and enhancement of the
Roberts-Vaughan House (ca. 1805), Hertford Academy (ca. 1811), the William Rea
Museum (ca. 1790), the Wheeler House (ca. 1810), the Winborne Store and Law Office
(ca. 1870), and the Murfree-Smith Law Office (ca. 1800).
Several of these historic structures were showcased in the eighteenth annual Candlelight
Christmas Tour on December 8 and 9. As in previous years, the event was a progressive
dinner featuring such North Carolina delicacies as seafood bisque, smoked turkey, country
ham, and smoked peanuts. Dulcimer and fiddle players, violinists, a handbell choir, and
several soloists and quartets performed seasonal music throughout the historic district.
Twelve historic buildings, each decorated to illustrate a verse of “The Twelve Days of
Christmas,” were visited on the tour.
New Bern Historical Society
The society is seeking donations to help underwrite the costs of additional land, an access
road, and visitor facilities at the site of the 1862 Battle of New Bern, which opened the
door to the Federal occupation of eastern North Carolina during the early days of the
Civil War. The society presently owns twenty-four acres of the battlefield, which is listed
on the National Register of Historic Places. To further its dual mission of preserving the
site while making it more accessible to the public, the society hopes to raise $143,000 for
the purchase of additional acreage for parking, shelter, restrooms, and recreational facilities.
Reenactors of the 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, which fought in the battle
under the command of Col. Zebulon B. Vance, have already raised a considerable sum
towards the erection of a regimental monument at the battlefield park. Contributors of
$125 or more will be acknowledged on a permanent roll of honor to be prominently dis-played
at the site. To make a pledge, or for further information, write to: New Bern Bat-tlefield
Preservation Project, New Bern Historical Society, P.O. Box 119, New Bern, NC
28563.
On September 12, Dr. Newsom Williams, former president of the society, was pre-sented
the prestigious Ruth Coltrane Cannon Award for outstanding contributions to his-toric
preservation in North Carolina.
2 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
North Carolina Society of Historians
For the second time in four years, military historian Wilbur D. Jones Jr. was honored with
two prizes at the society’s 62d annual awards banquet in Morehead City. Jones received
the Willie Parker Peace History Book Award for A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs of a War-time
Boomtown, his social history of the Wilmington home front during World War II. He
also earned the D. T. Smithwick Newspaper Article Award for a series of four op-ed
pieces in the Wilmington Star-News about Wilmingtonians who served in the war. Jones is
a native of Wilmington and a retired U.S. Navy captain. He also received two society
awards in 1999 for his services as volunteer chairman of the Wartime Wilmington Com-memoration
coalition.
North Caroliniana Society
The society is currently soliciting grant proposals for the 2004 cycle of Archie K. Davis
Fellowships. Designed to encourage research in North Carolina history and culture, the
program grants stipends to cover a portion of travel and subsistence expenses while fellows
conduct research. More than two hundred fellowships have been awarded since the incep-tion
of the program in 1987. The deadline for submission of proposals is March 1. For
further information, visit the society’s website, www.ncsociety.org, or write to Dr. H. G. Jones,
North Caroliniana Society, UNC Campus Box 3930, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890.
Phoenix Historical Society of Edgecombe County
On November 22 the society held its annual educational program. An abbreviated genealogy
research session provided instruction on the basic steps of tracing an African American family
lineage by using comprehensive research methods. Local history researcher C. Rudolph
Knight and genealogist Lawrence Jones conducted the workshop for fifteen participants.
Dorothy Spruill Redford, executive director of Somerset Place, was the featured speaker.
She discussed African American genealogy and the importance of historical objects and struc-tures
to mainstream American history. The speech was followed by a reception with a book
signing and the viewing of artwork by Richard D. Wilson, a local African American artist.
The society will celebrate Black History Month on February 21, focusing on the theme,
“The Education of African Americans in Edgecombe County, 1881-1970.” A panel discus-sion
will feature graduates of the county’s four former African American high schools explor-ing
their personal educational experiences. The alumni association of each school will display
artifacts and memorabilia. Dr. Willa Coffield is tentatively scheduled to speak on the legacy
of the Bricks School, a leading institution of higher learning in the county from the early
1880s through the 1930s. Participants will also have an opportunity to view her documen-tary
video about the school. The celebration will conclude with a reception. All events will
be held in the Edgecombe County Administrative Building, 201 St. Andrews Street,
Tarboro, N.C. For additional information, contact the society at (252) 641-0294.
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 2 9
[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the presidential address delivered by Mrs. Cotten at the meeting of the
Historical Society of North Carolina at Elon University on October 24, 2003. Mrs. Cotten retired in
December 2002 as head of the reference staff of the North Carolina Collection at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the editor of Thomas Wolfe’s Composition Books: The North State
Fitting School, 1912-1915 and is an active member of the Thomas Wolfe Society.
“I don’t know that all is forgiven but they asked me to make a
speech”: Thomas Wolfe and the 1936 Meeting of the North
Carolina Literary and Historical Association
By Alice R. Cotten
All was ready for the annual big event in the cultural life of North Carolina, the meetings
of the organizations that carried on the literary, historical, and artistic traditions of the
state. Foremost among them was the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association
(NCLHA), organized in 1900 “to collect, preserve, produce, and disseminate State litera-ture
and history, to encourage public and school libraries, to establish an historical
museum, to inculcate a literary spirit among our people, to correct printed misrepresenta-tions
concerning North Carolina, and to engender an intelligent, healthy State pride in the
rising generation.”1
The programs were printed, showing that on Thursday evening, December 3, 1936, at
8:00 P.M. at the Woman’s Club in Raleigh, William T. Polk of Warrenton, described in
publicity as a “rare combination of lawyer and short story writer,”2 would give his presi-dential
address, titled “North Carolina Prophets and the Twentieth Century.” The next
day held equal promise: Dan Lacy would talk on “The Historical Records Survey in
North Carolina”; Ruth Ketring of the Manuscripts Department at Duke University
Library was speaking on “Charles Osborne, Quaker Abolitionist”; Archibald Henderson
would give a “Review of North Carolina Books and Authors of the Year”; and at the ses-sion
on Friday evening, Albert Ray Newsome would present the Mayflower Cup for the
best nonfiction book of the year, followed by the closing address by well-known Balti-more
newspaperman and North Carolina native Gerald Johnson, whose paper was titled
“Proposals for a History of the Future.”
But the speaker whose name aroused the most interest and got the largest type in news-paper
articles was that of a thirty-six-year-old native son of Asheville, who was scheduled
to talk on Thursday night after the presidential address. The program listed his appearance
simply: “Address: Thomas Wolfe, New York.” The article on page two of the News and
Observer on Wednesday, December 2, 1936, was titled “Wolfe to Speak at Session Here,”
relegating mention of the talks by Polk, Henderson, Johnson, and others to the body of
the article.
Wolfe’s name generated interest from all parts of the state. On November 14, Miss
Carol Nunnelee of Small’s Book Store in Washington, had written to Dr. Christopher C.
Crittenden, secretary of NCLHA, that she had read in the News and Observer that day that
Thomas Wolfe was going to speak on December 3. Miss Nunnelee was “most anxious to
hear him” and asked whether she might do so even though she was not a member of the
society. Good ambassador that he was, Dr. Crittenden replied that “All session [sic] of the
3 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
New Leaves
Association are open to the public . . . we will be glad to have you come whether or not
you are a member.” He also enclosed a membership card and encouraged her to join by
paying the annual dues of $1.00.3 Miss Philena A. Dickey, director of the Sondley Refer-ence
Library in Asheville, wrote to ask for a copy of Wolfe’s speech to add to the library’s
collection.4
It is not hard to understand why North Carolinians were anxious to hear and see
Thomas Wolfe. Born in Asheville in 1900 and graduated from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1920, Wolfe burst upon the national literary scene in 1929 with
his novel, Look Homeward, Angel. But his drawing upon personal knowledge of real people
and events for his literary characters outraged some people, including his favorite teacher
in Asheville, who wrote him that “You have crucified your family and devastated mine.”5
Even Jonathan Daniels, who had been at Chapel Hill during Wolfe’s last two years there,
in his book review in the News and Observer on October 20, 1929, charged that “In Look
Homeward, Angel, North Carolina and the South are spat upon.” Wolfe, stung by the reac-tions
of his family and friends, had not returned to North Carolina since the book was
published in October 1929.
When a letter from his old friend Bill Polk arrived in June 1936, carrying an invitation
to speak before the NCLHA in Raleigh in December, Wolfe was tempted, perhaps seeing
this as an opportunity to go home again. He wrote to Polk on June 25:
. . . it is good to know that at least I have a chance of coming home without being
escorted to the outskirts of the town by the local Vigilantes and told never to darken
their public square again. Seriously, I am very much interested in your invitation and
would like to ask for a little more information. Just how historical does a speaker have
to be when he talks to the Historical Association? . . . if I spoke, would I be
tongue-tied with terror every time I looked around and found the cold and fishy eye
of the experts upon me? As I mounted to my peroration, would I be checked in my
full flight by the presence of J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, his face fixed on me with a
very fishy look, as though to say: ‘If this be history, I’m a horse’? . . . If I got going in
Raleigh, the Lord knows what would happen—I’ve got too much to tell them—
Couldn’t you write me and tell me a little more about the thing, the kind of
gathering I would have to face and the kind of talk they usually get? . . . So far as I
know I’ll be right here in New York in December, plugging away at a new book. If I
am still here and it was still possible for me to come to Raleigh, I’d probably do it. . .
. could you go ahead and get another speaker, announce him and put him on your
program, and if you like, say that I didn’t know definitely whether I would be able to
be present? . . . Then . . . if I was here and you wanted me to come down, perhaps I
could come and without interfering with the other fellow, just attend the meeting or
get up and talk for ten or fifteen minutes. . . . The main thing, really, Bill, . . . is that I
have got started working on another big piece of work. I finally got myself clear of
the whole snarl of engagements and complications that were beginning to get me this
last year, and am back at work, and I want to keep at it as hard as I can without
feeling that I am tied down by anything outside.6
Polk knew his friend pretty well. On August 4 he wrote to Dr. Crittenden, summariz-ing
Wolfe’s letter and saying, “I doubt if we can depend on Tom . . . I am inclined to
think we had better have someone we can depend on.” Polk passed along Wolfe’s sugges-tion
that perhaps the invitation might be left open and, if he did come, he could speak in
addition to the announced speaker.7 Polk ended his letter, however, by saying that what-ever
Crittenden thought best would be satisfactory. An interesting exchange of letters
began. Crittenden wrote back to Polk saying that the matter could not be left so indefinite
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 3 1
and that he was writing Wolfe to “ask him please to say either that he will come or that he
will not.” Crittenden did so, telling Wolfe that “Large numbers of people in North
Carolina are tremendously interested in your work” and that Wolfe could leave New
York on Wednesday, December 2, and return Thursday night, December 3, if he wished.
Crittenden assured him that the association would pay the expense of his trip.8
On August 7 Polk wrote Crittenden that he had received a letter from Wolfe in which
Wolfe said that he might go to Berlin for the Olympics. Polk suggested that if Crittenden
didn’t hear from Wolfe soon it would be best to try to get another speaker. Polk did not
tell Crittenden that Wolfe’s letter did not even mention the invitation.9
Crittenden continued to court potential speakers. One who declined was Pearl Buck,
who wrote on September 10: “I do no public speaking at all except for some personal rea-son,
because my work takes all my time.”10
On September 14, Crittenden wrote to Mrs. John R. Marsh of Atlanta, inviting her to
give the main address on Friday night, December 4. Mrs. Marsh replied, thanking
Crittenden and saying she was flattered but that she was not a speaker. “I have only made
two brief speeches in my whole life and they so upset me that I was ill for days afterwards.
I have discovered that writing books and making speeches are two very different matters.”
She continued, “Even if I were a speaker, I would still be unable to accept. I lost so much
weight completing my book and strained my eyes so severely that I am having to lead a very
quiet life and will not be able to do any reading or writing for some time to come. . . .
Sincerely, Margaret Mitchell Marsh.”11
The year 1936 had been difficult for Wolfe.12 He was beset with legal problems, one
involving a young man who was selling some of Wolfe’s manuscripts, and another involv-ing
a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed Wolfe had used episodes of her life in one
of his stories. His previously announced six-volume series of novels wasn’t progressing,
and he was considering a new writing project with another theme. The April issue of the
Saturday Review of Literature carried a charge by Bernard De Voto that Wolfe was more a
product of Maxwell Perkins and the “assembly line” at Scribner’s than he was a real artist.
By July Wolfe, stung by this criticism and by frustrations with Perkins over the direction
of Wolfe’s writing, began a painful break with his editor and publisher.
Wolfe had traveled to Germany in 1935 as a literary celebrity and had liked the country
very much. Berlin was the site of the 1936 Olympics, which appealed to Wolfe. When he
learned that his German royalties from Of Time and the River were sizable and could not be
brought out of the country, he accepted an offer from a steamship line offering him half-fare
passage in return for writing some short travel articles. On July 23 Wolfe sailed from
New York on the Europa, his seventh trip to Europe. The trip proved to be a pivotal
point in his writing career.
Wolfe came to Berlin in 1936 as a celebrity, prepared to enjoy again the wine, women,
and food in the country he admired for its cleanliness, order, and appreciation of his writ-ing.
And he did, for a time. But he was also changed in some unexpected ways. While
attending the Olympic Games, seated in the box of William Dodd, the American ambassa-dor,
Wolfe cheered loudly for Jesse Owens, the great African American athlete, producing
glares from Hitler.13 He fell in love with a German woman, though he got cold feet and
abandoned her while they were on holiday in the Austrian Alps. And, significantly, Wolfe
at last understood the realities of the Nazi dictatorship. Shocked by a frightening experi-ence
on a train in which he witnessed the arrest of a German Jew trying to escape across
the border into Belgium, Wolfe began writing a powerful story about the episode, later
titled “I Have a Thing to Tell You.”
In early October Wolfe returned to New York and began writing furiously, a period
that Wolfe scholar Richard S. Kennedy described as “the third great creative period of his
3 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
career.” From early October until December 4,
1936, Wolfe wrote, according to notes by his
secretary, 721 pages, or 180,250 words, an
astonishing output, work that made up the
bulk of Wolfe���s two posthumous novels, The
Web and the Rock and You Can’t Go Home
Again.14
During this period of intense creative
activity, Wolfe wrote to Bill Polk again
about the Raleigh meeting. On October 14,
Polk wrote Crittenden: “Yesterday I
received a letter from Tom Wolfe saying that
we had better not count on him and suggest-ing
that we get another speaker. He said that
he had planned a new book and did not
want to tie himself up with any engage-ments.”
15 But the North Carolina folks did
not give up easily. On October 21, Jonathan
Daniels wrote Wolfe, inviting him to a din-ner
that he and Mrs. Daniels were having on
December 4 for speakers at the NCLHA meeting. Wolfe replied that the chance of his
being able to come to Raleigh was uncertain, though he would of course like to come,
and that if he did he would be delighted to have dinner with the Daniels family. Wolfe
praised Daniels’s work with the News and Observer and, perhaps remembering Daniels’s
review of Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe thanked his old schoolmate for the “fine and gen-erous
notice” of Of Time and the River when it was published in 1935. The rest of Wolfe’s
long letter to Daniels was about Germany and politics. Wolfe wrote, in part:
I like Germany. It is a wonderful country. . . . But I deeply fear that these grand
qualities, all this devotion and fervor and self-sacrifice, has now been given to a
misdirected purpose. . . . Europe this summer was a volcano of poisonous and
constricted hatreds which threatened to erupt at any moment. . . . I think you’d be
surprised if you saw how politically-minded I’ve become. I’ve become enormously
interested in politics for the first time in my life. . . . Meanwhile I am back at work
again on a new book. It’s all coming with a rush and, believe it or not, for several
weeks now I’ve done more than 5000 words a day.16
Daniels wrote back on November 2 saying he was delighted that Wolfe could have
dinner with him and Mrs. Daniels when he came down for the NCLHA meeting. Daniels
continued:
I am very glad to know of your interest in politics but as yours grows mine wanes. I
am delighted that tomorrow marks the end of the political season and we can come
up for a real breath of fresh air. Of course, I am tremendously enthusiastic for
Roosevelt but I am undisturbed about what the state of the nation will be on
Wednesday morning. Even if the country goes crazy and elects Landon somehow I
believe we will survive. Certainly I hope we will all survive until the night of
December 4 and I trust we will have some fun.17
On October 28, 1936, Crittenden sent a letter to members of the NCLHA announcing
the “unusually attractive program” for December 3-4.18 Thomas Wolfe was on the
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 3 3
Thomas Wolfe in Berlin, May 1935.
schedule. On November 6, Crittenden wrote to Wolfe that he and Polk were placing
Wolfe’s name on the program for Thursday evening, December 3, realizing that it might
not be possible for Wolfe to come. He assured Wolfe that if he couldn’t come, they
would get someone to fill his place.19 A letter from Polk to Crittenden on November 7
again reported that a letter from Wolfe said it was doubtful he could come and that if he
didn’t he hoped they would explain that he had not definitely promised.20
Crittenden, certainly nervous by this time, wrote Wolfe again on November 25, telling
him that his visit was arousing a lot of interest. “People have written and telephoned from
various parts of the State to ask about it, and many of your friends are looking forward to
seeing you.” Crittenden asked for a summary of Wolfe’s talk by November 30.21 On that
date Wolfe finally wrote to Crittenden. His letter said that he had delayed responding until
the last minute, hoping he could come, but that he could not because he was working “at
top speed” on a manuscript, material that he had been working on since his return from
Europe two months earlier. Wolfe said several times in his letter that he was genuinely
sorry if there had been any misapprehension about his attendance, that he had said from
the beginning that he did not know for certain that he could come and that he would pre-fer
to come as a guest than as a speaker. He added that he hoped that he would get an
invitation to attend another meeting.22 A telegram from Polk to Crittenden dated Decem-ber
2, 10:12 A.M. read: “HAVE TELEGRAM FROM THOMAS WOLFE SAYING
IMPOSSIBLE BE PRESENT PLEASE NOTIFY PAPERS.”23 The article in the News
and Observer the next day was titled: “Novelist Wolfe Out as Speaker.” It began “Thomas
Wolfe decided yesterday not to look homeward.”24
But the NCLHA meeting was a success even without Wolfe. In a front-page article
with the initially puzzling title, “Looks Critically at Speedometer Reading Habits,” the
News and Observer reported that William Polk, “40-year-old Warrenton lawyer, mayor,
and literary man,” had opened the annual meeting the previous day with a gloomy survey
honoring “prophets” such as Edward Kidder Graham, Walter Hines Page, Clarence Poe,
and others. Polk declared that the state, “whose favorite reading was the speedometer,”
must now turn its attention to tenant farming and mill villages. Dr. Alex M. Arnett filled
the spot that was to have been Wolfe’s and gave a paper on Claude Kitchin.25
Secretary Crittenden wrote to Wolfe for the final time on December 14, saying that
“post mortems are in order” and that he believed that everyone understood that Wolfe
had never definitely promised to come to the meeting. Crittenden went on to say that
many people were very disappointed, and that “I feel that in a sense you owe it to your
native State to come back and make a public appearance within the near future.” He
added, however, “I shall not venture again to put you on the program unless you have
categorically committed yourself to be present.”26
Wolfe’s letter of December 2 to Bill Polk explained his absence in more detail, men-tioning
his legal problems and his writing. Of the latter, Wolfe wrote: “I’ve just stayed in
and worked for two months now, and I haven’t even had a haircut, which of course won’t
be news to you. . . . I’m going to keep on here as hard as I can go until Christmas. . . . I’m
coming down to North Carolina in a few weeks for the first time in seven years to see a
few of you again. . . . I think also the time is coming when I may have something to say to
North Carolina that will interest it. But I’m not sure that I am ready yet.”27
In a letter written on Christmas Eve, Wolfe also told his friend Marjorie Fairbanks of
his upcoming trip to North Carolina: “Yes, I think they’ll let me come back now. I don’t
know that all is forgiven but they asked me to make a speech, which is something isn’t it?”
He added, truthfully, “Of course, I didn’t make it.”28
Though Wolfe did visit friends in Southern Pines, Chapel Hill, Warrenton, and finally,
Asheville, over the next year, he never had another opportunity to address the NCLHA
3 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
meeting and tell North Carolina whatever it was that he wanted to say. He died of tuber-culosis
of the brain at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore on September 15,
1938. He was thirty-seven years old.
Shortly after Wolfe’s death, Jonathan Daniels, giving the presidential address at the 1938
annual meeting of the NCLHA, declared that literature must awaken the South from a
lethargy of legend and remove the Civil War as the “scapegoat” for its shortcomings.
Daniels praised Wolfe for writing in this vein, calling him “an artist who saw through the
false pride, the legendary aristocracy and feeble excuse of the South.”29 And that may have
been pretty close to what Wolfe wanted to tell his native state.
Notes
1. The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. Program. 1936.
2. Christopher C. Crittenden to members of the Literary and Historical Association, October 28,
1936, in box titled “General Correspondence, 1936-1938,” in Records of the Literary and
Historical Association, State Archives, Office of Archives and History, Raleigh, hereafter cited as Lit.
& Hist. Records.
3. Lit. & Hist. Records, November 16, 1936.
4. Lit. & Hist. Records, November 16, 1936.
5. Margaret Roberts to Thomas Wolfe, undated, quoted in Richard S. Kennedy, The Window of
Memory (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1962), 183.
6. Thomas Wolfe to William T. Polk, June 25, 1936, in Elizabeth Nowell, ed., The Letters of Thomas
Wolfe (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1956), 534-536.
7. Lit. & Hist. Records, August 4, 1936.
8. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records, August 5, 1936.
9. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records, August 5, 1936.
10. Lit. & Hist. Records, September 10, 1936.
11. Lit. & Hist. Records, September 14 and 17, 1936.
12. For more information on Wolfe’s life and writing, see Kennedy, The Window of Memory, and
David Herbert Donald, Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe (Boston: Little, Brown and
Company, 1987).
13. See Donald, Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe, 386.
14. Richard S. Kennedy and Paschal Reeves, eds., The Notebooks of Thomas Wolfe (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1970), 841.
15. Lit. & Hist. Records, October 14, 1936.
16. Thomas Wolfe to Jonathan Daniels, October 23, 1936, quoted almost entirely in Nowell, The
Letters of Thomas Wolfe, 551-554. Original in Jonathan Worth Daniels Papers, Southern Historical
Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
17. Copy in Daniels Papers.
18. Christopher Crittenden to members of the Literary and Historical Association, October 28,
1936. Lit. & Hist. Records.
19. Christopher Crittenden to Thomas Wolfe, November 6, 1936. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records.
20. William T. Polk to Christopher Crittenden, November 7, 1936. Lit. & Hist. Records.
21. Christopher Crittenden to Thomas Wolfe, November 25, 1936. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records.
22. Thomas Wolfe to Christopher Crittenden, November 30, 1936. Lit. & Hist. Records.
23. Lit. & Hist. Records, December 2, 1936.
24. News and Observer, Thursday, December 3, 1936.
25. News and Observer, Friday, December 4, 1936.
26. Christopher Crittenden to Thomas Wolfe, December 14, 1936. Copy in Lit. & Hist. Records.
27. Thomas Wolfe to William T. Polk, December 2, 1936, in Nowell, The Letters of Thomas Wolfe,
561-562.
28. Thomas Wolfe to Marjorie Fairbanks, December 24, 1936, in Nowell, The Letters of Thomas
Wolfe, 568-569.
29. Quoted in the News and Observer, December 2, 1938.
V O L U M E 5 2 , N U M B E R 1 , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 3 5
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